‘Police need to be more involved with community in resolving sensitive issues’

The Training Department of the Sindh Police organised a webinar to observe International Human Rights Day as part of a social media series named ‘Law is My Protector’.

The theme of this year’s International Human Rights Day, observed each year on December 10, was ”Recover Better: Stand up for Human Rights”.

The spokesman for the Sindh Police said the guest speakers of the webinar were Barrister Shahida Jamil, former federal law minister, and Niaz Ahmed Siddiki, former inspector general of police, Sindh.

Fouzia Tariq, human rights expert and founder of ‘Law is My Protector’, moderated the event.

Barrister Jamil shed light on the role of minorities, forced conversion laws and marginalised groups, and spoke of guidelines for police officers in dealing with minorities.

She said the police needed to be more focused on and involved with community in resolving sensitive issues.

Niaz Ahmed Siddiqui gave a presentation on international guidelines for police officers in the Covid-19 pandemic. He called upon the police to following the SOPs in this regard.

He also briefed the participants on how the coronavirus worked and what the best preventive measures were. He said the police needed to be more patient and caring towards people during the global pandemic.

Fouzia Tariq elucidated the role of the police in dealing with human rights cases. She emphasised the importance of communication skills and modern investigation methods, and requested the DIG training to arrange trainings on criminal psychology. She also stressed the need for training police officers on other important subjects as well.

In his concluding address, DIG Training Naeem Ahmed Sheikh lauded the efforts of Fouzia Tariq and guest speakers of the webinar, and assured the participants of his full support for implementing the constitutional provisions on fundamental rights and training.

He shared the upgraded training modules for all ranks of police officers, and discussed some basic competencies that police officers should have, what they should know about human rights, which skills they would need to acquire for successfully handling human rights principles in practical work, and which attitudes should underlie and support police work on the basis of a human rights approach.

In the end, Fouzia Tariq thanked the police department for their selfless service for the community and joining hands for this noble cause.