ISLAMABAD, Aug 26: US instructors and directors have been invited to Pakistan to give training and improve the professionalism and performance of the local police officers.

This was stated by US ambassador Nancy Powell on Tuesday while talking to the participants of the inauguration ceremony of ‘women reporting room’, established here at the Kohsar Police Station.

She said the US government, with the collaboration of the IGP, was sponsoring “police management training programme” to improve the working of police in Pakistan.

The ambassador said her presence at the police station was an indication of the US desire to help Pakistan in this matter. She said fewer women victims were reporting crime against them and the perpetrators often went unpunished.

Lack of reporting can also make it difficult to develop confidence in the victim who avoids going to the police to lodge a complaint due to fear, shame and confusion. It should be kept in mind that the victim may be someone’s mother, daughter or sister.

Ms Powell said the establishment of the ‘Reporting Room’ where a woman police officer would be available, was a message to the women that they should not be afraid of lodging their complaint with the police. She expressed the hope that this pilot programme would prove successful and such rooms would be established across the country.

Later, talking to reporters, she said the United States would continue extending cooperation to the Pakistan army, Inter Services Intelligence and the police till all Al Qaeda members hiding in the country were caught.

While appreciating Pakistan’s cooperation with the US authorities in their fight against terrorism, she said more than 500 suspected Al Qaeda members had been arrested by the Pakistani authorities since September 11.

“The cooperation with Pakistan’s intelligence agencies and police will continue till we get all of them,” Ms Powell said.

Earlier, adviser to the prime minister on women development Nelofar Bakhtiar said like in the other developing countries, the women in Pakistan were also victimized and oppressed. She said the government had declared the honour killing as murder, but the women were still being subjected to rape and many other crimes. She said the law should be amended according to the social demands to provide equal rights to the women.

She said it had been decided to conduct a comprehensive survey of all women police stations and the newly-established complaint cells to devise a national plan of action.

Ms Bakhtiar said: “We have to rise against violence. In Pakistan, a large number of women accept violence as fate. They think they do not have courage to retaliate. Those who retaliate suffer badly. So we have to think how to grapple with this situation.”

Those present on the occasion included Advisor to the National Reconstruction Bureau Dr Z.U. Khan, IGP Islamabad Mohammad Akram, SSP Shahid Nadeem Baloch and other senior police officers.