arzana Chaudhry, a journalist by profession, has been running from pillar to post for the past couple of months in order to lodge an FIR in a case of a bounced pay cheque. She says that the Islampura police wouldn’t register the FIR, so she “approached the concerned SHO, and later the DSP, and the SP, but all in vain. I had to wait in long queues. Besides, the thana staff was disrespectful.”

Contrary to the claims made by the city police, there’s visibly no change in the thana culture. The department receives a hefty amount from the national kitty every year, as budget for police reforms, yet even the smallest jobs such as filing an FIR or getting legitimate relief (from the police) are often hard to accomplish. The public routinely complain of police high-handedness. All this is besides the torture perpetrated on the accused at police stations in Lahore.

Recently, the caretaker chief minister of the Punjab, Mohsin Naqvi, had to transfer a DIG who had allegedly mistreated the staff of a local hospital and resorted to violence. However, the high-ranking police official was back only a few days later.

Broadly, the phrase “thana culture” is used to refer to the harsh and unjustifiable attitude of cops towards the common citizens. Efforts have been made during different governments in the past, to improve the popular image of the police, and to introduce reforms with respect to the style of policing — so far, 20-odd reports have been presented by different commissions and committees — but nothing substantial has come of it.

The department receives a hefty amount from the national kitty every year for police reforms, yet even the smallest jobs such as filing an FIR or getting legitimate relief (from the police) are often hard to accomplish. The public routinely complain of police high-handedness.

More recently, new buildings have been constructed to house police stations. Lahore now boasts a number of Khidmat Marakaz which offer assistance round the clock. Additionally, over 80 buildings of police stations in the provincial metropolis are being renovated. Just how far all these (cosmetic?) measures will go to improve the thana culture is anybody’s guess.

Also, no one knows how the authorities plan to deal with the rampant corruption in the department.

Farhan Ali Sheikh, a Lahore police spokesperson, tells The News on Sunday that under the guidance of the IG, Usman Anwar, all police stations of the province are being upgraded as part of the Special Initiative Police Stations protocol. Besides, private camera mapping and Pasban projects have been launched to make cities safer.

So far, four police stations in the city have been declared Model Police Stations. These are Mozang Police Station, Bhati Gate Police Station, Lohari Police Station and Hanjarwal Police Station. According to Ali Sheikh, “Model Police Stations are equipped with latest technology to facilitate the citizens.” He is certain that a clean and healthy atmosphere at these police stations will go a long way to change the public perception of the police.

He also speaks of the CCPO Lahore, Bilal Siddique Kamyana, as having taken a number of initiatives to bring about effective changes in the overall performance of the city police.

While the top bosses of Lahore police are busy touting SIPS as a great success, the crime graph has had an upward trend in recent months. As per the figures provided to this scribe, over 350,000 incidents of different kinds of crimes, including heinous crimes, took place between January and December 2023. On average, 150 motorcycles per day were snatched or stolen. City, Canttt and Saddar Divisions surpassed the other divisions in crime rate.

Barrister Aasya Ismail says, “I don’t think the latest police initiatives are going to yield significant results as those are only focused on symptomatic treatment; they don’t address the root cause of the malaise.” As an example, she quotes the much-tomtommed, mammoth exercise of changing the uniform of the Punjab Police which “added nothing of substance to the department. The initiative was just a waste of resources.”

The writer is a print and broadcast journalist