Every Pakistani who has ever felt wronged by our esteemed law-enforcement agency will have a visceral reaction to this statement, but just bear with me: We should be nice to the police in Pakistan. Now, based on overwhelming consensus, most are corrupt and there may be a shortage of traditional honesty in the ranks, but one can contend that even the corrupt ones deserve to be treated with respect. And for the few occasions where one actually encounters an honest cop, we ought to appreciate the rarity. Why? Because frankly, they do a lot for us that we either ignore or don’t appreciate because they are merely ‘doing their jobs.’ CEO’s of multinationals get fat bonuses for their performance throughout the year, police wallas get … squat.
The truth is that we are part of the problem. If this was a business, we’d be the annoying customers whom everyone unequivocally hates. Let’s be honest, we all love to complain and whine about our corrupt bribe-taking, gun-toting cops but we fail to consider the circumstances that they operate in.
Let’s face it, no one respects the work that cops really do in terms of maintaining law and order. At the first sign of trouble, we want the Rangers to be brought into the city to save us with their big guns and heavy equipment. My driver agrees. Once at a traffic jam near the Sheraton, he was of the opinion that if Rangers were brought in to manage traffic then traffic jams would be a thing of the past.
I’m a particular fan of the traffic police who ensure the smooth-ish flow of traffic on Karachi’s roads, with the only tools at their disposal being their flapping arms and their ability to fearlessly navigate a stream of fast-paced cars that insist on hitting their breaks less than a few feet away from them. And yet they stand in front of cars with little regard for their own well-being. They have the pleasure of standing in the sun all day directing traffic and kicking away beggars. I sure hope they at least get free laundry service. Keeping those uniforms white after a day in the sun or getting drenched by the rains must be an inevitable failure of an enterprise.
The police get overruled on by everyone. All you have to do is throw a few big names (the term General sahib works quite well) and then they’ll usually let you go. Driving an expensive imported car helps too. The only people they actually really stop and question are the ones from the middle- and low-income groups. Considering how little they get paid and with food prices sky-rocketing, I do sympathise with them. As much as I hate corruption, it’s difficult to imagine how they manage to make their ends meet.
The police working in the offices have it even worse, if anyone has been inside a police station they’ll be impressed by the ingenuity of the place. Termite-riddled desks are held together with super glue while cement bricks act as support for rickety furniture.
We live in a country where a Pizza Hut delivery guy gets to your house before the police does. Now the number of brand new police Toyota Corollas and Suzuki Mehrans the police have at their disposal is highly misleading. Unfortunately, the majority of our cops still travel in junk grade bikes and various antique pickups that are better suited for transporting livestock (the livestock don’t complain).
The duty of the police is to protect and serve. Why should they if we can’t find it in our hearts to treat them with a modicum of decency? They police wallas deserve to appreciated for the hard work they put in, especially since they have to deal with the public day in and day out.
Murtaza Ali Jafri is a Karachi-based banking professional and blogger. He believes in free markets and freedom, and wishes men could get more of the latter.
The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.
My dear Murtaza,
It is sad and disturbing that a well educated person, such as you can see a big problem, can analyse it well but fails to determine the correct remedy for it. You know what the biggest problem in Pakistan right now, its corruption. Now corruption is damaging no matter at what level it happens, regardless of how big or small. Honouring or respecting our police is like giving your respect to someone who you know is a criminal, but holds authority and hence should be respected. That is exactly what has brought us Pakistanis to a point that Zardari is our president.
A fauji jawan gets paid almost the same as a police man. However the police man gets a quarter to reside his family. The fauji jawan gets a bed in a barrack, his family stays in the village for all the time the jawan serves the nation. Now the sky rocketing prices apply to everyone, including the Jawan, who by the way is way more hard working and truly put his life on the line. Now if you want to respect a police man then you might as well let your jawans go out to the streets, terrorise the civilians and gather some bribes. That wouldn’t be right, would it?
My dear friend, what needs to be done is harsh, but a necessary evil. We need to dishonour these police men and the police officers. Let them taste the power of the Pakistani public, we need to enforce that the Police are public servants, our taxes pay for their salary and therefore they should fear us, not the other way around.
Our police was standing on the scene when the 2 innocent brothers were killed by the mob. They truly did put their lives on the line. Would you believe that once I was in a car accident, when a tractor jumped in front of my car on a busy highway. When the police arrived right in front of my eyes, openly they took money from the owners of tractor and pinned the accident on me. On another occasion I caught a thief stealing in our house, we called the police, handed over the thief and later the police calls to tell me that they are letting the guy go as he was no stealing anything new, it was all second hand stuff.
My brother our nation is so bold in corruption now that its appalling. So my message to you: Stop encouraging the corrupt, stand up against them. There is no excuse for corruption.
We cannot compare salary of a policeman with a salary of a CEO of an MNC. thats absurd. If you compare salary of a cop with salary of a clerk in an MNC then the policeman will out much ahead. Heck, every clerk in any MNC will become a cop if given a chance.
Police are really corrupt (I am from India…where the situation isn’t much different). There are millions of theories why our Govt bosses and minions are so bad as compared to their western counterpart and everybody has different solution.
I do not know what the solution is….but I know for sure that we cannot depend on Police or any Govt institution for help. People of our countries will have to take responsibility in being better citizens than waiting for the Govt to anything. Just my opinion. Will write more if this comment gets published.
Dear Nitin,
In my opinion the solution is simple, like judiciary Police should be an independent institute like Scotland Yard, not under the orders/influence of any ministry or ministers. They should be able to prosecute any citizens, public office holders, politicians etc if they have broken the law.
In my opinion independent Judiciary and law enforcement agencies is the key to success.
Regards,
You wrote
The truth is that we are part of the problem.
Now since we are the part of the problem.
When do you think ,we can start working on that.?
Let’s decide.if Pakistan wants to be Western minded or Islamic minded.
This my friends is the BIG Debate. and probably requires many many years to decide.
But ,it can be done.
So when do we start the Debate?
Thank you
Jay
Institutions have been established in any country to perform their role in a society. It’s the responsibility of the Governing body to ensure that they have been financed well enough to perform their jobs. I do agree that policeman are not getting enough wages/allowances/housing schemes BUT make no mistake there is no excuse for corruption. We have got strong media, political parties, lawyers, other organizations to fight for their rights, but did any one bother or did they (policemen) bother?
Law enforcement agencies plays vital role to establish rule of law in any country, if they are corrupt (no excuses please) then there is no hope for such nations/countries. I have sympathy for the condition they are in but disappointed with their performance as an institute.
All you need is a sincere and good leadership in the country. I hope Pakistan will find one day.
All you need is a sincere and good leadership in the country. I hope Pakistan will find one day. INSHALLAH
I agreed with Mujtaba Ahmed
Excellent .Now i can say thank you!
Its true that the Police Wallas are also part of the society and of course we all are living under the same sky. They deserve better.
comment the pakistani policeman since 1947 has been looked down upon, made fun of, and at times ridiculed by the general public poor middle class and rich every thing about the policeman is wrong the way he stands the way he talks to you the way he or his superiors ride or drive their means of transport he is corrupt you know what the police salaries were and probably still are a maali in an industrialist’s house would be getting more than a constable but when thieves barge into your house to kidnap and steal when you have a traffic accident and people are ready to break your Mercedes because you may have hurt a poor old woman when you receive threatening phone calls the POLICEMAN, of whatever rank, is who you look to after of course Allah Almighty.
And then when everything is taken care of, and you are comfortably nestled at a friend’s party, with alcohol of different varieties, you become the center of attraction by letting it be known how you fixed this policeman, how you had another officer transferred, how you called your lieutenant-general uncle or friend to brow beat another police officer, and on Let us look into ourselves–and not just look, do something, in acknowledgment and appreciation of the Police Service Of Pakistan!
I fully support that Police reforms should be introduced immediately and policemen salaries to be raised, but it doesn’t mean to support these culprits / un-educated police personnel. All police force should be replaced with highly educated, well trained, well mannered, well educated and well paid police force gradually.
One cannot compare apples and oranges that bankers / private salaried people with most of the Thaana (police station) occupied by undeserving people. If you want to compare their hardships, compare it with a factory worker who earns only 4-5K a month to run his household. These policemen earns on an average minimum 12,000 PKR a month although, if they are sacked would hardly be able to earn 4-5K a month. Obviously, I am talking about only honest but incapable policemen. Those who earn through unfair / un-lawful means are un-comparable with any other salaried person in the society.
We both agree that our police deserve better salaries, support and training but I would say that our so called educated class and so called elite are the real culprits. When do they let the police do their job? The article is right on the money when it speaks of people trying to use influence or scare the police when the police is trying to do their jobs! How can replace the police when the so called educated people are not really educated, well trained in civic sense or well mannered? I would still trust a Pakistani policeman over all the selfish city residents who think they can do whatever they want because they own such and such or know so and so or they belong to so and so family. I don’t think our people would dare try that nonsense in other countries!
What mazaes me is the treatment so called ‘educated’ or civil society types hand out to the police. They are ignored, maligned and generally made to feel like the dirt under their expensive designer shoes. The same ‘upper classes’ would dare not ever behave in such a way with the the Shurta in dubai or the Booby on the beat in London? Why? Until we start to respect the police in a manner that befits their role in society nothing will ever change. In Pakistan we think laws are only enforced for the lower classes. For those fortunate to have fancy imported cars or live in nice villas the law only applies when the plane leaves Pakistani soil.
If this government didn’t waste so much money on pampering itself and started to develop a decent local and national police force that was well paid and well looked after then corruption could be reduced and the rule of law may just start to return….
Well written article. How dare anyone point their fingers at the police when your average citizen is far more corrupt! The only difference is that the simple policeman or policewoman pts his or her life on the line. I agree that we all need to show the police more respect. With all the abuse that they take from all the so called upper class people and their spoiled kids, it’s a wonder that they still do so well!
Even all the police residence once build by government not even recolor or maintained after the day of construction. Go and check these residential areas except Arterly police lines as its near governor house and required face lift otherwise all the accommodation budget consume by so called educated CSP officers and no one blame them. Investigation officer never ever receive 5000 per case expense as per rule as consumer by seniors and no one notice in media about these facts. Most of top officials of Police force have number of petrol pumps and real state in Karachi and pushing all the pressure to lower ranks to face violence of city and they enjoy life comfort in high places in city with latest cars etc.
Nicely written article. Amongst most corrupt gvernment’s departments, Police is way down somewhere in the bottom. I think Education, Health and Revenue departments are more corrupt than Police.
haha, I love it, I guess we as a society love to be criticizing any and everything.
we should be walking in a police wallas shoes one of these days to understand their hardship.