Police reforms stressed

LAHORE: Civil society members have demanded the national and provincial legislators take immediate action for introducing and implementing police reforms across the country to avoid incidences like that of Salahuddin Ayubi in Rahimyar Khan.

A civil society network for police reforms, consisting of 180 members from different walks of life, including bar, academia, media, religious minorities, transgender community and NGOs, held a peaceful demonstration outside Lahore Press Club, demanding immediate police reforms.

They demanded that this was not the first incident where basic human rights were violated by police. They urged the federal and all the provincial governments besides Azad Jammu and Kashmir to form multi-party legislators’ committees to implement police reforms in their administrative areas rather than blaming each other.

The civil society network’s charter of demands said police stations should be empowered technically, financially, infrastructure and human resource-wise. Mechanisms should be in place to make police operationally autonomous and free of pressures with regard to recruitments, transfers, promotions and investigation. The quality and cost of investigation and police trainings should be increased substantially; strict internal and oversight mechanisms should be in place for their accountability. Special attention should be given to the needs of children, women, special persons, minorities and other vulnerable segments of society. Mechanisms should be in place to enhance community-police collaboration. Besides, measures should also be taken for improving the overall image of police for acknowledging sacrifices and contributions of the police.

It was also stated that it would be the decision of national and provincial legislators to enact a uniform model police law for the entire country or opt for separate police laws at the provincial levels. Journalists from national and local print and electric media were requested to take up the agenda of police reforms from the perspective of legislation.