Burden of expectations: our poor law enforcers
2013 has not been kind to our poor law enforcement agencies. Be it the Rangers or the local police, there has been much hubbub from various circles about their inefficiency. Some might even go as far as to say they’ve been incessantly targeted unfairly by the general masses. We cannot expect the police to be able to solve all our problems now, can we?
It was refreshing to see them being praised around Eid for taking up their posts even though terror threats loomed the country. Terrorism is indeed a grand problem, one which needs a thorough response. In a heroic effort to thwart the D I Khan jailbreak the police forces, in consensus with the jail authorities, ensured that the army was kept out of the intelligence loop. Most people don’t understand what possible reason they would have to do this, except if you look at it closely you’ll find that they were only trying to safeguard democracy. The army does sweep in and take control of far too many situations for the country’s comfort. By doing this they ensured that the jailbreak was handled in a manner which would keep the army at bay.
The Taliban aren’t an easy foe to fight, however, which led to problems within the D I Khan attacks. We cannot expect the policemen to be able to handle such a situation especially since the Taliban and other terrorist groups stem from within the Pakistani soil. Would it not be wrong to attack another Pakistani? The Taliban also extended their well wishes to the police and prison employees for their efforts to keep the brotherhood of the Pakistani people intact. Who says we have problems with unity? We could all learn from the police.
It’s troubling when people start asking questions about the Elite force which is trained to handle such problems. Even though the police have it covered (with their dire lack of training and equipment, along with morals and loyalty) many have often asked why the Elite force isn’t used as often in terrorist threats. Well, for starters, one of the primary jobs that those guys have to perform is making sure all VIP movements stay safe. With their proper equipment and brilliant training, the Elite force has been doing its job ridiculously well. So why fix it when it’s not broken? Pushing the Elite force to protect the people instead of the politicians will only do one thing: deliver a grand blow to democracy, for how will you run a democratic state unless you have leaders who can forward the people’s agenda? It is for the greater good that the Elite force must remain where it is!
People who’ve been criticising the police for the Okara incident also need to be set straight. Fine, the police may have crossed a line by getting a father and son to sodomise each other, but who are we to judge? If a woman is raped you can’t pronounce the poor chap guilty unless she finds four witnesses to corroborate her story, heck even DNA evidence doesn’t work. Then why is it that because two men were involved and it was the police that we’re hell bent on pronouncing them guilty of sexual deviance. Do the father and son have four witnesses? The double standards in the country are atrocious! Pakistanis know not what to do except complain about everything.
And of course we have the businessmen in Karachi who need police-like powers for their guards. In the face of extortion, robbery and other threats the industrialists claim they need better protection. But thankfully they blame the Rangers just as much as they blame the police for the security failures – so there’s some objectivity there. Jameel Yousuf, former Citizen Police Liaison Committee Chief, even offered a better solution: pay the police to hire more men for security, the police would be able to do a better job if they had more people, surely. In this case it’s the Rangers who get the heat more than anyone else. How is it their fault that they were installed into a chaotic city like Karachi though? Even the MQM can’t keep the peace even though it’s repeatedly tried with protests which shut the entire city down. If the MQM fails, then who are we to look towards the Rangers to succeed?
The Rangers have been doing their job well. They shoot on sight and fight with the ferocity of a lion. But sometimes when the lion is hunting it ends up killing other animals even though it doesn’t want to – like a taxi driver. If it weren’t for the suo motu case they wouldn’t even have to bat an eyelid before moving onto their more important duties. The Chief Justice himself admitted during the case that the Rangers can only stop and search people. Well, if they can’t shoot people then how did those people die? It’s obviously just Zionist propaganda. And seriously, first they’re told they can’t shoot people then they’re blamed for the rising crime – they shot a guy in 2011 in front of a camera after proving he was a thief and people went berserk. What are they expected to do exactly? Play ludo with suspicious people instead?
At this point I believe we should let the police and other law enforcement personnel have a breather. Only recently did our police force lose a member of their own: an imported sniffer dog who was bought for Rs2.2 million and died three days after it arrived because of the poor quality food it was given. It was a great loss, one the forces obviously have not yet recovered from. We cannot blame them for their poor performance; we should only blame ourselves for expecting oh so much from them.
The writer is a journalist based in Lahore. She can be emailed at [email protected]. She tweets @luavut
