Every Pakistani who has ever felt wronged by our esteemed law-enforcement agency will have a visceral reaction to this statement, but just bear with me: We should be nice to the police in Pakistan. Now, based on overwhelming consensus, most are corrupt and there may be a shortage of traditional honesty in the ranks, but one can contend that even the corrupt ones deserve to be treated with respect. And for the few occasions where one actually encounters an honest cop, we ought to appreciate the rarity. Why? Because frankly, they do a lot for us that we either ignore or don't appreciate because they are merely 'doing their jobs.’ CEO's of multinationals get fat bonuses for their performance throughout the year, police wallas get ... squat.
The truth is that we are part of the problem. If this was a business, we'd be the annoying customers whom everyone unequivocally hates. Let's be honest, we all love to complain and whine about our corrupt bribe-taking, gun-toting cops but we fail to consider the circumstances that they operate in.
Let's face it, no one respects the work that cops really do in terms of maintaining law and order. At the first sign of trouble, we want the Rangers to be brought into the city to save us with their big guns and heavy equipment. My driver agrees. Once at a traffic jam near the Sheraton, he was of the opinion that if Rangers were brought in to manage traffic then traffic jams would be a thing of the past.
I'm a particular fan of the traffic police who ensure the smooth-ish flow of traffic on Karachi's roads, with the only tools at their disposal being their flapping arms and their ability to fearlessly navigate a stream of fast-paced cars that insist on hitting their breaks less than a few feet away from them. And yet they stand in front of cars with little regard for their own well-being. They have the pleasure of standing in the sun all day directing traffic and kicking away beggars. I sure hope they at least get free laundry service. Keeping those uniforms white after a day in the sun or getting drenched by the rains must be an inevitable failure of an enterprise.
The police get overruled on by everyone. All you have to do is throw a few big names (the term General sahib works quite well) and then they'll usually let you go. Driving an expensive imported car helps too. The only people they actually really stop and question are the ones from the middle- and low-income groups. Considering how little they get paid and with food prices sky-rocketing, I do sympathise with them. As much as I hate corruption, it's difficult to imagine how they manage to make their ends meet.
The police working in the offices have it even worse, if anyone has been inside a police station they'll be impressed by the ingenuity of the place. Termite-riddled desks are held together with super glue while cement bricks act as support for rickety furniture.
We live in a country where a Pizza Hut delivery guy gets to your house before the police does. Now the number of brand new police Toyota Corollas and Suzuki Mehrans the police have at their disposal is highly misleading. Unfortunately, the majority of our cops still travel in junk grade bikes and various antique pickups that are better suited for transporting livestock (the livestock don't complain).
The duty of the police is to protect and serve. Why should they if we can't find it in our hearts to treat them with a modicum of decency? They police wallas deserve to appreciated for the hard work they put in, especially since they have to deal with the public day in and day out.
The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.
