QUETTA: Constable Shazia is in her 40s. She recalls vividly the piece of advice her mother used to give her: Never join the police force.

She had given the advice to Shazia 25 years ago, despite the fact that she herself was a police constable at the time. Now Shazia herself is a mother. However, despite being advised to the contrary, Shazia joined the police force. Her mother’s advice reverberated through her mind while working with her male counterparts, at a male-dominated police station.

Yet unlike her mother, Shazia has been lucky enough to have witnessed the opening of the first women’s police station in Quetta, where she is working now as a constable. Although work was underway to establish the women’s police station in Quetta for quite some time, former IGP Balochistan Mohsin Hassan Butt inaugurated it last year. The facility is situated adjacent to Civil Line Police Station.

This writer recently paid a visit to the women’s police station in Quetta. Upon my arrival, I spot a veiled lady constable sitting in her seat. Inside the police station, in the SHO’s room, I sit with Shazia, asking her why her mother did not want her to follow in her footsteps. “Do you know?” she asks, while resuming her sentence briefly, “in 2011, when I had joined the police force, I went along with my male counterparts in a raid, and I had taken along my lunch box. After coming back from the raid, I found out a mobile phone number of one of my male colleagues inside the lunch box. He had scribbled it on a piece of paper,” she shares. “That experience provided a window into the challenges women such as my mother faced while working with their male colleagues, in the departments such as police, which are predominantly dominated by men.”

The women’s police station surprisingly has a homely feel, unlike traditional police stations that are somewhat places of fear. Ever since she has been working at the women’s police station, she feels like working at home. “Thanks to our madam jee,” she shares while gesturing towards Sub-Inspector Zarghuna Manzoor Tareen, who is the first SHO of the first women’s police station.

Zarghuna, the lady boss

Manzoor Tareen, Zarghuna’s husband, was the SHO of the New Sariab Police Station, situated on infamous Sariab Road. In 2011, he was shot dead along with his guard and driver in the Killi Shahnawaz area, after surviving two earlier attempts on his life, including a bomb explosion near his vehicle.

In Quetta’s journalist circles, Manzoor Tareen was known as ‘BBC’ because he used to give them inside news. Situated in the southern parts of the city, Sariab Road is the longest road in Quetta. Back in 2011, the road was synonymous with bomb blasts, targeted killings, and other such crimes.

Following the killing of her husband, Zarghuna herself joined the police, instead of sitting at home. Today, as sub-inspector, she is the SHO of Balochistan’s first women’s police station.

As she has been working for over a year, she quickly responds in two words, in a confident tone, to Dawn in reply to a question on the overall performance of the department since its inception: “Very good!”

Zarghuna is calm, confident, and attentive during the conversation. Spearheading a staff of 37 women, she says there have been 23 cases they handled since the inception of the station. “As you know Balochistan is a patriarchal society, and there is no awareness about our women’s station in Quetta. We have received around 23 cases of fights, robbery, and domestic violence, among other things,” she contends confidently. “The women have themselves come to lodge these cases.”

Glass ceiling

Despite other challenges, she points out that regrettably, there is no electricity and gas provided directly to the station, saying utilities are supplied from Civil Line Police Satiation.

“Unfortunately,” referring to Shazia and other lady constables, she says “there is no promotion, and for the last several years, [they] are still constables while there is [a huge] difference between our salaries and our counterparts’ salaries in Punjab. Despite the odds, we have come out, so that other girls follow suit, to pursue their passion,” she concludes.

‘We are glad’

In the IT room, a woman in her 20s has come with her father to apply for a licence. She says she feels confident, without any fear, coming to a police station staffed by women. “We, the women, make up more than 50 per cent of the population,” she adds while standing along with her father in the IT room. “Such facilities are the need of the hour for us.”

Hailing from Chaman Patak area of Quetta, Zainab is one of the complainants Dawn spoke to. According to her, she came across the police station on social media. As she has been facing domestic violence, she recalls she was compelled to warn her husband that she would go there to lodge an FIR against him for beating her up. “Taken aback, and due to fear of the women police, his attitude towards me has changed for the better,” she recalls, adding they are glad to have their own police station.

Fatima is associated with the NGO sector in Quetta. While talking to Dawn, she regrets that there is no dedicated fund provided by the provincial government for Quetta’s sole women police station. “The station is run by the funds of NGOs,” she claims, adding that there should be funds allocated in the annual budget because women cannot go to the male-staffed stations, while they can go to a women’s police station without fear.

SHO Zarghuna confirmed that funds were provided by the NGOs.

Balochistan’s second women police station has been set up in Turbat, the headquarters of district Kech, where Inspector Masirah Baloch has been appointed as SHO. When Dawn contacted the said station, they said they were not authorised to talk to the media.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2023