The alarming increase in gender base violence in the country now demands prominent presence and active role of police personnel, said representatives of civil society organisation on Thursday.
Women should not only be given prominent presence in the Police Department but they should also be authorised to register First Information Report (FIR) especially at women police station and investigate the cases, they said while speaking at focus groups discussing on women police in Pakistan organised by Individualland Pakistan, a research consultancy organisation in collaboration with Friedrich Naumann Stiftung.
They also criticised appointment of male police officer as a Station House Officer (SHO) in women police station and demanded of the government to immediately remove male police officers from women police stations and appoint female officers as SHOs. They also demanded to increase the number of women police station in Pakistan.
Dr Aneela Khan from the Institute of Psychology Islamabad speaking on the occasion said that there are less than one percent women in the police department of Pakistan compared to 7.4 percent in Maldives, 6.11 percent in India and 4.63 percent in Bangladesh, which is very alarming and due to this it is essential to increase the number of women staff in the Police Department.
Ghazala, belonging to Potohar Organisation for Development Advocacy (PODA) said that there is a need for finishing the gender bias that only male police personnel can be efficient, women police can outperform male police officers in their duties and there should be no male police or women police, they should be treated as police officers.
Another participant said that government need to set up separate police stations for women and also women should also be promoted at the same pace as male police officers.
Individualland Pakistan has been working with women police personnel since 2011 and has conducted two surveys on Women Police in Pakistan and also published two publications.
The main objective of organising the seminar with the civil society and the media was to share the findings of their research on Women Police and to involve them for a way forward in improving the image of police and highlighting the issues of women police.-PR