ISLAMABAD: Letting out a cry of protest while choosing to remain anonymous, a few of the Capital’s lady police on Thursday revealed that work-life imbalance was not letting them draw a line between their job and personal life while their issues were paid no heed at the top level.
A lady constable on condition of anonymity said that she had joined the department a decade ago and had been compromising on her personal and social life since then as her hectic routine entails remaining available on call for 24 hours.
Shaista, another constable who did not reveal her official status, said that she wanted to be posted at her home station, Attock, as she was already married when she took up this job and had become a rolling stone between her social and official obligations due to a long-distance travelling every other day.
Another female official stated that a lady officer was dependant on her male counterparts’ go-ahead signal to deal any eventuality which was also discriminatory and showed lack of trust. In such cases, she questioned why female officials were even sent if they were not prepared to handle life-threatening physical encounters, terming the practice as unfair.
“The law and order situation always remains critical and the Capital is the most sensitive station to perform duty due to the movement of VIPs. Sometimes, we are not even relieved to deal with any emergencies at home. This affects our overall job performance”, lady constable Shabeela Kauser said.
Sameena Khalil, a 27-year old lady constable, said she was forced to travel between a budgetary rented house and her duty location as the environment at the official accommodation offered at Police Lines was not livable.
When contacted, police spokesperson Shams said that the authority arranges a monthly session to look into the issues of the lady police and tries to resolve them.
“Issues of posting at far points and long-hours duty occur every now and then as the department has an insufficient number of women officials,” he admitted.
“However, every female appointee is aware that this job demands an extremely courageous and selfless attitude as we are here to serve the nation and have to brave all challenges for a cause”, he said.