While going through Peshawar
these days, the capital of Khyber Pakhtun Khwa (KPK), while being a die hard
supporter and as advocate of PTI, you always wish and hope to see improvements
in capital city and you really feel glad when you actually see quite much
improvement all around, may you talk of the roads or beautification to be
specific, the healthcare system including the government hospitals or the highly
unpoliticied and so much talked about, The Police of KPK. The honourable Chief
Minister of KPK Pervez Khattak and the dearest Imran Khan, the Chairman of PTI ,
never hesitate in mentioning at the top of the list, while they often speak
about the few and the better changes they have brought to the province to some
extent, but to Peshawar in particular. I would like to bring into the knowledge
of CM KPK, the grey area in police department which is not for the sake of
criticism but for the improvement of the department so that a common man can
equally be benifitted from it.
It was a couple of days back when a friend of mine who is in his 30s, narrated
me his story and expressed his resentment over the police. He, who is presently
a PhD doctor and serving in a renowned university of KPK as an Assistant
Professor, shared that, last night while he was going to pick his wife from a
hospital in Hayatabad, herself a serving lady doctor, his car was hit by police
vehicle (Double/cabin) as he slowed down his car to take a U-turn, when hit at
the rear, he took off to the side of road and while he disgustedly came out to
see his car, the policemen came near and instead of excusing, very rudely
started thrashing and abusing him, threatened him to vanish away else they can
do much more harm. My friend being could do much and wisely and quietly went
away, having noted the number plate of that vehicle, to the nearby police
station and registered a complaint. The same day he shared with me his last
night incident, I immediate took him along, to police lines, to inquire about
that vehicle. Firstly, even I being an army officer, it came out to be quite
difficult for us to reach the offices of police lines, after crossing exactly
about four check posts, I started wondering how would a common man, more
importantly a poor man, reach out for justice when the situation is as such.
Anyways we could make out to reach the Complaint cell of police, which has also
been paised very oftenly on the media. Personel at the cell referred us to
SP(operations) when came about us being from army background. When we met SP,
and as my friend narrated his incident, the police officer couldn’t get any clue
from anywhere when inquired from different resouces on telephone, and in the end
had to cut a sorry figure to us, keeping in view his genuine restraints.
Nevertheless we were assured us that he will try reach out to the roots of the
issue and ensure such incident doesn’t happen in future.
The point to ponder upon is that, its not that you only start depoliticizing the
few top slots in the police and you start claiming that your police has become
the best of the best. You really need to go down to Sipahi level to improve upon
the department. As a police officer its becomes a prime responsibility that you
exactly know your men in uniform are working for the welfare of people, not to
harm people in the guise of their uniform. Secondly as department you really
need to facilitate poor people in solving their problems, make it easier for
people to reach and get their issues resolved. Having said so, KPK government
has got onto the right path of making it a better and an ideal province in the
country. If provincial government takes criticism positively and acts promptly,
the province can soon very hopfully become Not Better but an Ideal KPK.