Editorial Desk :When a high ranking police officer like the chief of a very special force called Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) Mr Benazir Ahmed says emphatically that there should not be any mistake in knowing that the police we have are police of a free country and they should not be taken as colonial force he deserves plaudits. He further asserted the position of the police for their high qualifications and specialised knowledge in policing.Mr Benazir was participating in a talk show of RTV few days back. The talk show was though on the whole an informative one but not altogether pleasant. But we are not discussing the moments of unnecessary tension or flashes of arrogance which became visible to the audience during the talk show.Many were to be inspired to know from Mr Benazir that our police are very much the people’s police and not a colonial force. He was quite boastful in clarifying that police persons come from the people and they are part of the people and nobody should think otherwise. Naturally, he wanted the role of the police not to be undermined by those who are not specialists. But the specialists are kept at a heavy cost to the people for the benefit of their special knowledge and training.Mr Benazir has also received special education and training abroad so he should also be knowing that during the British colonial rule the rulers also wanted the police to be seen as the people’s police. It was understood by the British Raj that the police must enjoy the trust of the people to be effective for maintaining peace and order. They could not just be the gun power of the rulers for ruling the country. They knew that the ruling part is a much higher and wider political responsibility.The country could not be run by the police, so the question of them becoming masters of the people was not in the consideration of the British rulers. The idea that the police should be the people’s police was in use when the people were not even the citizens of a free country.We achieved Pakistan to be free from the bureaucratic dominance that made the country govern like a colonial power. Our people learned the bitter way that to free a country does not necessarily ensure the people’s freedom unless the government and public servants can be made accountable to the people. Unless the government servants forming the permanent government accept their responsibility as public servants of a free country it is not simply possible for the people to live in freedom and peace.So when such a high police officer claims with full vehemence that they are not police of a colonial power but the people’s police of a free country such spirit should be reflected in their behaviour toward the people. They have to make good use of their special knowledge and training for which the people pay to make their life safe and easy. Politics is not their specialty and must not be dragged into it. The people and not the police keep a government in power. It goes without saying that police are holding their high positions for special knowledge and training. And that is why the people get frustrated for the mismanagement in dealing with crimes and security in public life.It is also not new to be told that the police alone cannot do the policing without the cooperation of the people. If the police conduct themselves as the people’s police then it is a contradiction not to get the cooperation of the people. We must not take the people as fools. These are the words of Mr Benazir Ahmed in one way or another. It should be known to knowledgeable police officers that people’s cooperation cannot come when the police have not been able to offer a sense of security. The people are living in fear of thugs and killers roaming freely and can strike anybody anytime. Contrarily, the people are told they cannot be given protection in their homes and they should arrange their own security.Any police officer true to his profession knows well that it is against the professionalism for police to talk politically. They are law enforcers and not politicians. Not only that they belong to a discipline force. The people are supporters of various political parties but the police are to serve the whole people without political bias.It is not enough to say that our police are not colonial police, for the police to be the people’s police they must enjoy autonomy from the biases of the government. Our successive governments have become habituated to think that the police are government’s police, not the people’s police. The police have to earn the rightful image to be known as the police of a free country.To say we are the people’s police should not be misinterpreted to assume that they (Police) are the people and they know what is best for the people. The police as public servants, are friends of the people and not the people. The slogan of the autocracy is that the autocrat himself is the people.The most disappointing thing about us is that we have many highly competent and knowledgeable persons among us and yet as patriots we have to admit we are terribly failing the people to ensure good governance as if we do not know how to provide good governance. Our competent ones must know when things are not competently and honestly done.When police high-ups say they cannot alone manage peace and order, everybody will agree. But that should not mean that the people will have to take the blame for the police not doing their job professionally or the government relying on police power to save them from their wrong politics.A people’s government must be a government freely elected by the people. If this is not accepted then violence for power becomes part of public life. The task of the police to maintain peace and order is made next to impossible for the police. Because the violence that follows is not a law and order situation but politically invited violence.Mr Benazir must have also seen police management in other democratic countries, but surely he did not see police so much under the grip of the government. So let our competent and well-trained professionals in all spheres of our national life, not only in the police alone, prove their ability and commitment to do their best for the people and the country while not forgetting that hypocrisy has done its worst to our people. Our image is that greed is everything.
