Crime and police

What – a senior serving police officer in Karachi is booked on a charge of robbery and kidnapping? How can one explain and understand such an act of infamy? And does this mean anything that the officer belongs to a privileged family?

I know that many would be surprised to find a suggestion of outrage and wonderment in how I have introduced this incident of a police officer’s alleged involvement in high crime. This may have gone too far, but deviant behaviour on the part of our powerful officials is almost a matter of routine.

But I honestly believe that this particular case should ring alarm bells in the context of how the system is losing its footing. Or should we take this as an example of an individual’s own transgression? In any case, the story demands full disclosure and the serious attention of those who profess to preside over our affairs.

Anyhow, I do need to provide a glimpse of what has been reported in the media. Newly appointed DSP Umair Tariq Bajari was arrested on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, he was remanded in police custody in a case pertaining to robbery in a raid on the house of a trader in Orangi Town.

The DSP and his two gunmen, along with some other policemen and private citizens, are booked for raiding the trader’s house during the night between November 18 and 19 and looting over Rs20 million, jewelry and other valuables. A probe was immediately ordered by the IG and the enquiry report said: “The deliberate concealment of actual facts and the casual approach towards such a task reflects that the officer DSP is directly responsible for the illegal/criminal act along with his staff and private informers”.

The DIG who investigated the matter recommended strict departmental and legal action against DSP Bajari for his “direct involvement in such a heinous crime”. We should take note of the use of words like “illegal/criminal” and “heinous crime” in a departmental enquiry that involved a fellow officer.

There is more. There are reports of DSP Bajari being investigated in more criminal cases. One news item published on Friday said that the chief of Sindh police has ordered an inquiry “against former SSP South Imran Qureshi, DSP Bajari and others on a complaint pertaining to dacoity and kidnapping of three citizens including a retired army officer for ransom in Gulshan-e-Iqbal”.

It is hard to know whether the entire truth is being revealed and if some kind of a cover-up will be set into motion at some point. We may be justified in suspecting that other and possibly more heinous crimes may have been committed in not just the police department but also in other domains of law enforcement.

There are two reasons why I am so keen to focus on the alleged crimes of a senior police officer belonging ostensibly to the elite segment of our society. One is my abiding concern about the manner in which Pakistani society is breaking down and how the people are left with no hope for redemption.

The other seems oddly providential. It so happens that today, on the second and concluding day of the Adab Festival being held in Karachi, of which Ameena Saiyid is the moving spirit, I have to moderate the launch of a book written by Syed Kaleem Imam, a distinguished former police officer who has the rather unique distinction of having a master’s degree in philosophy. That is why he was known as the ‘philosopher cop’. He has been the police chief in Punjab, Sindh and Islamabad.

Consider also the relevance of the title of his collection of essays – or opinion pieces published in national newspapers: ‘In Pursuit of an Ethical State: Reflections of a Police Chief’.

Coincidentally, I have written the book’s foreword. The time that I have for a conversation with Syed Kaleem Imam in today’s session is short, but it should be possible to touch upon some topical aspects of how the police are engaged in the gargantuan task of law enforcement in a society that has lost its equilibrium.

Unfortunately, our media is not able to professionally investigate and analyze the many changes taking place in our society. The talk show syndrome in our news channels and social media – the chewing of the political cud – portrays the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of Pakistani society. Rather frequently, we have a story of the kind that is the peg of this column. But we continue with business as usual.

It is possible that the leadership in the police and other departments and agencies is conscious of the challenges that the moral and intellectual deprivations of Pakistani society have aggravated. There is obviously no simple solution to a number of problems that have deep roots in how Pakistan has been governed in recent decades.

While writing my foreword for Syed Kaleem Imam’s book, I became aware of the limits of the power of, say, a committed police chief. Still, there is a wealth of information and insights in how the author has highlighted the importance of moral values that, in his view, have an organic linkage with a democratic dispensation. He has shared the agony that he had to suffer throughout his career when he observed merit being disregarded.

It has been his experience that civil servants have mostly abandoned moral principles. Here is one quote: “We never tried to reclaim our integrity, strive for equality and rebuild our nation on the pillars of justice”. It is his observation that during our most trying times, “the police force teeters on the precipice of a tarnished legacy”.

Does this mean that pursuit of an ethical state is an exercise in futility? Well, to raise this question is in itself a welcome initiative because it requires you to think about where we are and where we want to go. That a path to the future is not visible in any direction is something else.

The writer is a senior journalist. He can be reached at: ghazi_salahuddin@hotmail. com