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Police cannot control terrorism: Pak Police official

Poreg View:  It was a frank admission as frankness can be. Pakistan’s Punjab provincial police chief Haji Habibur Rehman has admitted that his force cannot control terrorist incidents. The point he is making should make the police planners in the country to sit up. And it is that the police force as it exists is not capable of tackling the terrorist menace, and that its primary focus is general law and order issues like dacoity, murder and attempt to murder.

In a manner of speaking, Rehman is not making a startling disclosure. The US, which has been beefing up Pakistan’s capability in the fight against terrorism, has offered to train the country’s police and even equip them for the task. But, the GHQ in Rawalpindi has been refusing the offer steadfastly. In fact, the army leadership has bluntly told the Americans that they would handle the needs of the police on their own and they needed no outside help.

The army claim now stands punctured badly and that too in full public view. According to a report in the Lahore daily, The Nation, IGP, Haji Habibur Rehman said on Tuesday that the terrorist incidents that took place in Wazirabad and Lahore reflected that we (Punjab police) cannot control terrorism. “We have devised a special strategy against terrorism, but so far the culprits of Lahore and Wazirabad terrorist incidents have not been traced, he said, while addressing a news conference at Faisalabad.  He added that soon the Punjab police would launch an operation against illegal weapons and licensed arms too.

The Punjab police chief’s confessional is seconded by a report titled ‘Stabilizing Pakistan through Police Reform’, prepared by the US based Asiatic Society. The report is the result of an unprecedented convening of law enforcement and legal experts in Pakistan and the U.S. led by Asia Society Senior Advisor Hassan Abbas.

Its conclusion is that Pakistan’s efforts to combat crime and counter terrorist activities are being outpaced by the innovation and agility of criminal networks and terrorist organisations. Without comprehensive reform of the legal framework governing police action, the police force as an institution, Pakistan’s law enforcement strategy, and interagency and international coordination, Pakistan’s progress toward political stability and economic security will be limited.
 
According to the report, a lack of resources, poor training, insufficient and outmoded equipment, and political manipulation pose difficulties to the police force as it works to maintain law and order. To be successful, reforms must aim to improve police technology, personnel, training, and intelligence capability. A well-defined national counterterrorism strategy is essential to establishing a clearer role for the police in overseeing internal security. Increased international support will be useful in the spheres of technical assistance, training, and modern equipment.
 
Stabilizing Pakistan through Police Reform explores aspects of reform that are crucial for jump-starting this process and highlights the obstacles that have derailed previous efforts. Contributors assess the current state of Pakistan’s police force and offer recommendations for enhancing the institutional capacity needed to check the growth of organized crime and effectively conduct critical counterterrorism operations throughout the country.
 
One of the contributors to the report is Pakistani Senator Aitzaz Ahsan. He writes: “Pakistani governments lack the political will to reform the country’s police force. The main reasons for this absence of will fall into three areas: societal, structural, and historical. The societal reality is that the measure of all power in Pakistan is the ability to abuse it. The structural reality is that the civil and military bureaucracy, including the police, is far more entrenched than its political masters, who, on occasion, get an opportunity to come into government but not into power.”

Well, Ashan’s is a home truth for Pakistan!

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