KARACHI: Police authorities in Pakistan’s southern megapolis of Karachi have started appointing women as duty officers to improve the culture of the male-dominated force, a top official said on Saturday.
While women police stations were introduced in Karachi, the capital of Sindh province, two decades ago, and female personnel have been appointed as station house officers, it is the first time for them to serve as duty officers and moharars — police clerks who record complaints.
“We are trying to improve the culture of police stations and for this purpose have started to appointing women as duty officers and head and assistant moharars in police stations in Karachi,” Sindh Police Inspector General Ghulam Nabi Memon told Arab News, adding that in such appointments will also be made at other police stations across the province.
Police hope the presence of female duty officers will encourage more women to seek help when needed.
“Duty officers and clerks are the first points of contact for complainants at police stations. Appointment of women at these basic posts of direct public dealing will push complainants, especially women, to go to police stations and lodge FIRs,” Memon said.
This photo shared by Special Services Unit Sindh on March 9, 2020 shows women cops in Pakistan's Sindh province. (Facebook/SSU Sindh Police)
Zoha Waseem, assistant professor at University of Warwick who researches policing in South Asia, said the appointment of women was a “positive move.”
“It’s believed that the appointment of women on such positions can encourage female victims to file complaints because the stations are otherwise male dominated,” she told Arab News.
For the initiative to be sustainable, she added, the police force would however need to adjust the working hours of female staff, giving women officers the chance to attend to their family duties as well.
“The sustainability can be possible only if female officers at junior levels are given proper promotions, their duty hours are made better and if they have kids they should also be taken care of,” Waseem said. “If you don’t take their time and family considerations into account, they may not stay.”
For Muhammad Ramzan Channa, a retired inspector general who has been a member of police reform committees, the Sindh police initiative was a “huge way forward toward a better police system.”
“The conduct of women is relatively good compared to male officers at police stations,” he said. “It will benefit society, help empower women, but most importantly, this initiative will result in better policing and improve police’s image.”
