KARACHI, Nov 20: A task force of citizens be established to introduce reforms in the police and bring about good governance in society.

This was proposed at a consultative meeting of the National Project for Participatory Citizens on ‘Police interaction and training for improved policing of human rights violation and advocating police reform’ held in a local hotel on Thursday.

The Shehri-Citizens for a Better Environment organised the meeting in collaboration with the National Endowment for Democracy. Various NGOs, lawyers, civil society members, police representatives and citizens attended the meeting.

The aim of the National Project for Participatory Citizens project is human rights sensitisation with the police and to build and expand work in improving policing of human rights, said Project Director Gulmina Bilal.

She said the project was participatory and thus sought inputs from all stakeholders as to what in their opinion was better policing, how to make the police more responsive, as well as address the trust deficit between the citizens and the police.

The agenda of the meeting was about police reforms that whether citizens wanted police reforms or not, she said. The recommendations made in the meeting would be sent to parliament, she added.

“We realised that the only way to improve the quality of life of the citizens was to demand and advocate good governance through the rule of law, accountability and a code of conduct in the government and society,” said a representative of Helpline Trust.

“The system has to be self-sustainable and self-accountable while we have to start from basics in order to reform the system and bridge the gap between the police and the masses,” he said.

He said the system could only be evolved if the rule of law was enforced. “We need to take police personnel on board to bridge the gap between the uniformed citizen and the citizen without uniform,” he added. Each member of the task force would be given the responsibility to establish and monitor the activities of these committees, he said.

The objectives would be to contact senior bureaucrats, heads of civic agencies and civil servants and change their attitudes and mindset and work with them to improve the services of the various government and civic agencies, he said.

“It will take 100 to 200 years to reform the existing police system in Pakistan,” said Tariq Ashraf Mughal, criminologist and deputy superintendent of police training and recruitment.

The 2002 Police Order was made within a year, which was insufficient period for proper research and to address each and every point, said Tariq.

Nearly 95 per cent of the policemen are matriculate or below this qualification, said Tariq. “Education is the basic unit and the police system cannot be reformed unless policemen are educated,” he said. “We are compelled as we can't take action against the media, lawyers and mullahs,” he added.

“The 2002 Police Order has a community board facility at police stations, but it is not practised,” said Khatib Ahmed, a member of Shehri. He said the annual confidential report (ACR) of police officials should also give evaluation of human rights violations committed by policemen.

He said that to bring about police reforms, civil society members should be associated in forming daily ACRs of police personnel regarding human rights violations.

A police representative said 70 to 80 per cent of crimes could be reduced if honest DPOs and TPOs of were hired. He added that the police should be made independent of political influence to implement the law in letter and spirit.

The people should also support the police and appreciate their good work, said a police representative.

The police should be appointed on the basis of certain standards and police training should be made compulsory in the department, the participants urged.

The pay-scales of police personnel be raised so that their efficiency was enhanced and they did not seek bribes. The media should recognise the proper and honest policemen and give them sufficient coverage so that other policemen also got inspired to do good jobs, participants suggested.

A model police station be opened in a small town which provided efficient and quality service to the people.

The citizens should also be educated at the grass-roots level about their duties to society and adherence of law, the house observed.

It was observed by the house that the elite, rural and feudal classes did not obey the norms, law and system. The law should be implemented at all levels without any discrimination of caste and class.

The house suggested that the police should have arrest warrants and do an investigation before arresting any person. The participants decided to hold a demonstration outside the house of specific officials to shame them over their wrongdoings.– PPI