Despite repeated warning by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif that he would not tolerate ‘thana culture’ and police torture, there seems no let-up in such cases in the province.

However, the Punjab police chief, Haji Habibur Rehman, says he has found the ‘root cause’ of the problem.  In his view, what makes his force ‘grumpy’ all the time is the black uniform and to bring a behavioural change among the personnel it is necessary to change the outfit. The IGP believes that black uniform absorbs more heat and makes the wearer hot tempered.

The police chief floated the idea to change the uniform at a meeting held in Lahore recently. He was of the view that the police culture and its image in the public would be improved by changing the colour of the uniform.

Some of the participants of the meeting, including additional inspectors general of police, were surprised over the suggestion and said changing the colour of the uniform would in no way solve the problem.

They were of the view that instead of changing the colour, the uniform should be made more practical and suitable to the fieldwork.

After a brief discussion, the IGP decided to form a four-member committee to propose changes to the uniform. He also directed all the regional police officers to submit their recommendations regarding the proposed changes.

Here one should point out that about four years back, a new traffic police force (wardens) with new uniform was introduced by the Punjab government, but so far its personnel have failed to change their attitude towards the public and discharge their duties in a professional manner.

There has been strong public criticism of the wardens’ attitude towards motorists. It was also acknowledged by senior police officers that the traffic wardens lacked proper training and should not have been allowed to perform their duties independently unless they were imparted proper training.

What the IGP Punjab needed now is to bring behavioural changes, impart regular training to the police on modern lines and ensure appointment of officers on merit. New uniform without all these prerequisites would be a wastage of public money. The police have been facing lots of problems ranging from lack of modern training and equipment, corruption, failure in checking crimes, especially kidnapping for ransom and the never-ending practice of torture. The latest brutality of the police in the Rawalpindi city came to fore when an 18-year-old milkman lost his life after being tortured by a policeman and his accomplices.

Malik Waqqar Ahmad was abducted and kept in illegal confinement in a private torture cell at Pirwadhai for more than one week. After being released, he was admitted to a hospital where he died a week later. In his statement, he said: “I was tied with a chain and hanged from the ceiling of a room. I was beaten with iron rods and subjected to severe torture.”

After his death, his family staged a protest demonstration outside the hospital and blocked traffic to force the police high-ups to take action against the culprits. But the city police officer, Azhar Hameed Khokhar, was of the view that the incident of torture had not occurred inside a police station.

The family got nothing in this case too. Only the station house officer of Pirwadhai, Malik Tahir, and his subordinate Noman Qayyum were suspended. Definitely, these officials would be reinstated soon and even would even get the posting of their choice.

Another such incident involved a 25-year-old man from Mandi Bahauddin. He was kidnapped by some unidentified persons after reaching Rawalpindi on April 2. The kidnappers demanded a Rs2.5 million ransom for the release of Mohammad Aslam and later killed him after his family failed to arrange the amount. His body was found dumped at a deserted place in Gulzar-i-Quaid. A gang of swindlers, comprising two women and four men, were arrested in connection with the case.

Akram Amir, one of the relatives of the victim, said a police official suspected of disclosing the information to the kidnappers regarding police raid at their hideout was also being probed. “Had the police raid been successful, Aslam would have been recovered alive,” Mr Amir said.

The provincial police chief should find solutions to the problems being faced by the force and concentrate on bringing attitudinal change rather than changing the uniform. Critics believe that without these measures, the police attitude and ‘thana culture’ can never be changed.