Policing Karachi

‘Chief of Army Staff, General Raheel Sharif, and Director General Rangers Maj. Gen. Bilal Akbar Wednesday separately ordered inquiries into death of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) worker, Aftab Husain, who died in Rangers custody yesterday, Samaa reported.’

Aftab Ahmed, coordinator of Farooq Sattar was under a three-month preventive detention when he died. ‘“A high-level investigation committee has been constituted on directives of DG Rangers to ascertain motives behind Aftab Ahmed’s death… Officials possibly involved in the incident have been suspended,” Rangers spokesman said in a statement.” (SAMAA TV website)

The incident is troubling, pictures making rounds on social media show marks of torture. The good thing is Rangers came clean and immediately suspended officers possibly behind it and opened an investigation into the unfortunate death.  A friend who wishes to remain unnamed wrote, “We are all missing the point. Why did the Rangers arrest the chap in the first place. And what were they trying to extract from him.  Moreover, we know that even the CIA has caused the deaths of many whom they thought were enemies of the state. The Rangers have lost peers in Karachi and have their backs up against the wall.”

Irrespective of the ongoing raging discussion on the death, this incident sharply brings to focus a question: since the continued extension of Rangers powers in Karachi that is absolutely unavoidable owing to the situation of lawlessness that existed in Karachi and still needs time to clean, the fact is this breathing space should have been used by the government to start putting improvement mechanisms in place-as indefinitely policing cannot be done by another entity for the institution originally responsible for it. Why has no attention been paid to it? The entity responsible for it is the police.

Hussain Haqqani, Pakistan’s former Ambassador to USA writes to me, “It is never a good idea to have any third force doing the task of another. Unfortunately police in Karachi failed miserably to restore and maintain some degree of peace and normalcy in the city.” I could not agree more. Permit me here to draw a parallel with Zarb-e-Azab . I have stated in my columns and different forums that military steps in exclusion to other steps will remain a temporary peace measure. These steps are addressing funding of those madrassahs where it comes, monitoring the syllabus, improving the judicial system, providing employment opportunities to the youth and common man, offering better health facilities to state just a few. Likewise, with Rangers covering the back, steps to make the Karachi police self sufficient in policing the city is necessary. “Temporary measures to restore peace should remain temporary. At the same time, investment should have been made in raising and training a better police force. Has not been done since 1992 when Karachi’s vulnerability was first identified and the Rangers brought in,” says Haqqani.

There are many issues that need to be addressed to make Karachi police efficient to discharge of its duties. A key problem that riddles the Karachi police is two pronged: a police force with inadequate resources coupled with one that is heavily politicalized. More especially in Sindh, police appointment decisions  are more political driven that competence driven. “In the decline of Karachi and the overall thrust of policing in the rest of Sindh there is ample evidence that the emphasis of successive PPP governments in Sindh has been on controlling the police rather than letting them get on with their job.” (Editorial of leading local newspaper March 14, 2016) “The bigger and longer-term problem is that none of the provincial governments appear interested in true police reforms,” continues the editorial.  “Every political government has placed their own people in the police force who owe their loyalty to them,” says Brigadier Mohtram,  former Home Secretary Sindh Government.

“In Sindh, the VIP culture is such that keeping police guards is a big status symbol, the more follow on vehicles one has indicates greater nuisance value. All VIPs want new vehicles, which are provided at the cost of general policing. The fuel allocation goes to VIP protection vehicles. Latest is that VIPs are now demanding only elite force personnel and police commandos for protection. Resultantly the best vehicles and the better-trained personnel are assigned to the so-called VIPs. None of the thana even has 50% strength. A lot of people who have no political or government positions are also lavishly provided with guards and police vehicles. Unlike the army where training is a continuous process, police has no such system for professional growth and specialization for both officers and non officers. They have a nominal training for up gradation which can be avoided with connections. The worst is that the investigation (IO) arm is not undergoing any training; they are just learning the trade on job. Resultantly investigation is very poor. Virtually no forensic training. The worst are the intelligence CIA and Special Branch have become extremely weak as the budget allotted never reaches them. Poor training is one of the basic cause of poor policing,” writes Brigadier Mohtram.

Going by Brigidiar Mohtram’s statement, it is not just a drastic improvement that is needed at all levels within the police set up but also our culture needs to change.  Better training, refresher courses, better equipment, the list is long.

Besides the problems briefly touched upon above, Haqqani states, “Several political agendas at work in Karachi: PMLN, PPP, MQM and then the periodic attempts to create ‘political alternatives’ which do not have real substantial following.”  Though many will disagree with the involvement of some in creating political alternatives, no one will deny that the stakeholders in Karachi are many, each with their own vested interests that have been in conflict with Karachi’s interests and thereby Pakistan’s interests.

The government has ignored putting in place long-term corrective mechanism to compliment Zarb-e-Azab. The government has ignored putting in place long-term corrective mechanism to compliment Rangers efforts by improving the police system in Karachi.

When will the government get on with it?

If at all.

The writer is a lawyer, academic and political analyst. She has authored a book, ‘A Comparative Analysis of Media and Media Laws in Pakistan.’ She may be contacted at [email protected] and tweets at @yasmeen_9