KARACHI: The police and Rangers have no strategy in place to prevent misuse of their uniforms by criminals, it emerged on Monday.

Two incidents of misuse of uniforms occurred last month. According to a Rangers spokesperson, they had detained four suspected extortionists who wore Rangers and police uniforms. In the other incident former SHO Javed Baloch disclosed that Arshad Pappu and his associates were picked up in the Defence Housing Authority by kidnappers wearing Rangers’ uniforms.

According to M. Abbas, the owner of the Pak Navy and Army Store in Saddar, the fabric of police uniforms is easily available in the market and can be stitched into a uniform by any tailor.

Police uniforms comprise of khaki pants and dark grey militia shirts that are easy to replicate.

He added that criminals took police uniforms from washers and other policemen and had the clothes altered to fit to their size. “Ordinary people are unable to distinguish between real and fake policemen and are fooled easily because of these uniforms. Only those associated with the profession can distinguish between the two,” he said.

Another owner of a similar business, who did not want to be named, said that policemen frequented his store often complaining that their uniforms were stolen from their police stations, implying that they fell into the hands of criminals. Shahid Farman, owner of the Tooba Army Store on Tariq Road, said the GHQ and the army were particular when ordering uniforms from them, sending authorised officials with a letter to pick up the uniforms that they bought in bulk whereas the police were lax in their attitude towards uniforms with individual policemen dropping by to buy them, without any authority letter.

Regarding the Rangers uniforms, a vendor said that about 200 prints of their uniforms were available in the market, increasing the likelihood of their misuse.

When the uniform suppliers were asked about the mechanism to sell uniforms and insignia, they said they asked for the service cards of the law-enforcement personnel and their computerised national identity cards. “I even keep a written record in the form of a register entering the names of the persons who have purchased uniform or insignia from my shop,” said Abbas.

Uniform vendors also cater to television channels that require some of their characters to be fitted into police uniforms if they are playing the character of police personnel. The method for this, according to Abbas, is: “The TV channel person should bring a letter from their channel which states that the name of the programme or the serial, details about the characters and uniform requirements.” However, he says, he does not give the precise insignia to the channels and instead sells them an ordinary security guard’s insignia.

Upon inquiring what happens to the uniforms after the TV serial is over, the proprietors said they had no idea as it was the responsibility of the channels. “They should either have it disposed of properly or should store somewhere,” said Abbas.

The director of Main Hoon Shahid Afridi, who has also directed several TV drama serials, Syed Ali Raza, said dramas only depicted police in their plays as they could not portray other law-enforcement personnel. “The costumes of the police personnel used to be made by old-time PTV costume designers and they would supply it to us. Once the TV serial ends the costumes are stored in the wardrobe and are used for the next play having such characters,” he said. When Pakistan Rangers, Sindh, spokesman Major Sibtain was asked about their strategy to prevent misuse of the Rangers’ uniforms, he said: “We have written to the government of Sindh to ban the selling of uniforms by unauthorised dealers and shopkeepers as it is the primary responsibility of the government to ensure that the uniform is not misused.”

This reporter made several calls to Sindh police spokesman SSP Imran Shaukat and left messages at the central police office asking queries about police strategy to prevent misuse of police uniforms but he did not answer.

Security experts agree that there is a need for a proper strategy that checks the misuse of Rangers and police uniforms. “One can get hold of small-time tailors and purchase fabric from anywhere and get uniforms stitched. The law-enforcement agencies need to really go after the chain that includes accomplices, apprehend them and then put them into jail,” said Jameel Yusuf, former Citizens-Police Liaison Committee chief. Regarding TV channels and uniforms, Mr Yusuf said the drama creators should take permission from the district SP and once the play is over, the uniforms be donated to a police station. “Everything should have a modality,” he said.

CPLC chief Ahmed Chinoy said effective legislation was needed for restrictions on uniforms sale. “Three things are required: One is whoever stitches the uniforms can do so with the permission of an authorised department. Second, if a vendor sells uniforms to unauthorised people, action should be taken against that person. And finally, there should be special security features in the uniform that distinguishes it from counterfeit uniforms.”