Pakistani women police officers await investigative responsibilities in serious cases

Noshin (pseudonym) is a resident of Gujarat district and his the daughter was allegedly raped by some influential people in the area some time ago.

When she went to the police station to lodge a report of the incident, the police first showed the usual laxity and when they started the operation, they kept asking the sexually abused daughter about the incident. The male police officers also kept asking questions that embarrassed the men present there, including them.  When Noshin objected to asking such questions, the police officials were of the view that it was necessary to ask such questions in the preliminary investigation to be conducted before the case was registered.  Noshin said that during the half-hour interrogation, when such questions continued, he told police that he did not want to take any legal action in connection with the incident.

There are many cases of rape in Pakistan in which the affected families do not follow the police to protect their dignity due to inappropriate behavior of the police.  Often in such cases, under pressure from influential people, the police dismiss the cases as "mutually agreed" before they reach the courts.

There is a growing awareness in Pakistan that female police officers should be included in the team investigating cases of rape and other sexual offenses, but despite this demand, most such cases are still being investigated. Only male police officers do.  A male police officer is also investigating a case of alleged sexual assault of a housemaid in a private housing society in Bahria The town recently, while a woman was among the accused arrested in the case. During the interrogation, a lady constable was seated in the room where the case was being investigated.  It should be noted that the Supreme Court of Pakistan had ruled in a case related to an incident that took place in Muzaffargarh in 2017 that cases of rape and other sexual crimes should be investigated by female police officers instead of male police officers.  The apex court had further said that in the district where the incident took place and the female police officer did not have the experience to investigate, the case should be referred to a district where a female police officer is stationed who has serious cases. Have experience investigating.

Contrary to the Supreme Court's decision, senior police officials still prefer to have serious crimes investigated by men rather than female police officers.  Probably a factor as to why they're doing so poorly.  Talking about this, former Punjab Police SP Ishtiaq Shah, who specializes in investigating serious cases, said that in his view, men are more interested in mastering investigations than female officers.  He said that even today the city police chief invites applications from aspiring policemen for the investigation course, out of which 99% of the applications for the investigation course are from male police personnel.  Ishtiaq Shah said that in gang rape cases, the investigation does not have to be so hard, and in this case, the medical examination of the victim girl or woman, and her statement is more important.  He said it did not matter whether a female police officer was involved in the investigation or not if the medical examination proved rape and the victim made a statement against the accused.

He said that when the police raided a brothel and arrested men and women from there, it was not necessary to have a female police officer involved in the investigation of such cases as sex in such places is consensual. And in such cases, both are punished.  Punjab, the country's largest province by population, has 4,500 female police officers, while the province has more than 190,000 male police officers.  Thus, in terms of proportion, there will be only one female police officer to look after the case of more than a thousand women in Punjab.  There are more than 700 police stations in Punjab and the rate of women working as police station chiefs in these police stations is not even equal to the salt in the flour.  There are 705 police stations in 36 districts of Punjab and in about five of them, women police officers are performing their duties as SHOs.  here are women's police stations in only three districts of Punjab, including Lahore, Faisalabad and Rawalpindi.  According to police records, 80 percent of police stations currently have women's help desks where one or two lady constables are deployed to assist male police officers.  The highest number of these female police officers is constable rank and this number is more than 3200. These officers have no experience in interrogation and even if anyone has the experience, they are minor criminal cases.  The number of women police officers in Punjab from ASI to Inspector is around 400  To find out how many women have undergone investigative courses in the Punjab Police, when contacted at the office of Punjab Police Chief Shoaib Dastgir, his public relations staff did not provide any assistance. ۔  There are 22 police stations in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, one of which is a women's police station, where an Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) has been made in-charge of the station.  In Punjab province, about three hundred and fifty cases of rape were reported last year, while in 2018, the number of such cases was more than 2900. Similarly, the number of gang rape cases was more than 170 last year.  Of all the police teams formed to investigate the incidents, almost all of them were manned by male police officers, while a female police officer of a woman should be included was called in only when an accused in such a serious case or Suspiced in the interrogation.  There are about ten cases of rape in Punjab during this period in which female police personnel was also included in the investigation team and in nine of these cases not only the accused were arrested but also the prosecution accused in the courts. Also succeeded in convicting.  These cases include the gang rape of a deaf and dumb girl in Chakwal and three cases of rape in Gujarat.  The team investigating the murder case of social media celebrity Qandil Baloch was headed by a female police officer who exposed the accused in the investigation of the case.  DSP Atiya Jaffery, stationed in the southern part of Punjab, Multan said that female police officers also take various courses along with male police officers to specialize in interrogation.  He said that some courses are required to master the investigation while some courses can be taken by the police officer if he wants otherwise there is no restriction on doing so.  He said that in order to be promoted from sub-inspector to inspector, every police officer, whether male or female, must complete a four-month investigation course and those who do not do so will be promoted to the next rank. Not found  According to Atiya Jafari, the course deals with investigating serious cases such as murder, robbery, rape, and kidnapping for ransom.  Speaking to the BBC, he said the situation was changing over time and now a female police officer was being made in charge of the men's police station.  Atiya Jafari said that there are some police stations in Multan and other districts of South Punjab where a female police officer has been made in-charge of police stations.

He said that in order to reduce the burden on the police station in-charge, separate investigation cells were set up in the police station to investigate serious cases like murder which have now been abolished and also the responsibility of investigating serious cases like murder and gang rape. It has been handed over to the police station in-charge.  According to Atiya Jafari, she has so far investigated more than 26 murder cases during her service and her conviction rate is more than 80%.  He said that the lack of inclusion of female police officers who have done investigative courses in the investigation team or their alleged neglect has led to a growing sense of inferiority among female police officers.

According to the female DSP, the war between Ranker police officers and the Police Service of Pakistan is not limited to men but also affects women police personnel. He said that PSP police officers are posted as sub-divisional police officers in the entire province but no rank-and-file female police officer has been given these responsibilities by the authorities so far  Jamshed Khan, an instructor at Police Training Sihala, says women police officers are taking a keen interest in training to investigate serious cases such as murder and gang rape.  He said training is provided to gather and secure evidence at the scene of a murder.  He said women police officers were also trained by calling in experts from abroad to specialize in investigating cases such as gang-rape and honor killings.  According to Jamshed Khan, five female police officers are among the policemen who have gone abroad to serve in the UN peacekeeping mission this year.  He said that many women in the posts of sub-inspectors and assistant sub-inspectors in the police are taking up the police department after success in the Public Service Commission whereas in the past, it was considered a major defect for women to join the police. ۔