KARACHI, June 11: While an ambitious Rs940 million e-policing project is in the pipeline, the administration has so far failed to address brass tacks issues concerning the police department. A survey conducted by Dawn has revealed that nearly 80 per cent of the police stations in the city lack basic amenities such as toilets, washrooms and drinking water.
For the law officers forced to work under such inhuman conditions, the disparity between the existing infrastructure available to the police and the massive investment on the IT front appears nothing less than a cruel joke.
Dawn contacted officers at the helm of affairs in more than a hundred police stations across the city, and found a host of basic issues concerning efficient policing that need to be addressed before the hi-tech plan envisaged by the authorities.
In zone south of the police organisational structure, Saddar Town has 11 police stations. None of them has any facility for drinking water and personnel have to depend on support ‘from the outside.’ “A few of the police stations in the town have water and sewage pipes that date to before Partition, and are still being used,” said an official, reluctantly disclosing that policemen at Mithadar, Kharadar, Garden and Nabi Bux police stations have to rush to M.A. Jinnah Road’s Memon Masjid in order to use the toilet.
Similarly in Lyari, where four police stations are at the centre of the struggle to enforce the law and crush the rampant gang-warfare in the area, policemen are constrained to rely on external sources to meet their basic needs.
“The Baghdadi police station’s structure is so badly-deteriorated that it cannot be worked in,” said a senior official in the area. “There are washrooms but they cannot be used because they are in such a poor condition, let alone the fact that no water is available. There is no drinking water available either.”
The situation in Keamari Town’s four police stations and Jamshed Town’s six is no different, Dawn found. The only exception to this tale of uniform mismanagement, it seems, is Clifton Town, where all the six police stations have useable facilities.
With regards to the working conditions in the police stations of the zone, the tenders issued recently by the Central Police Office (CPO) on behalf of the DIG south are revealing: “The tenders invited bids from interested parties for the construction of sewerage systems, toilets, water filtration plans, electric works, windows, doors, flooring, plastering and white-wash,” reported a source close to the CPO.
And while the new police hierarchy does appear to have taken up the issue, low-ranking officers and law enforces believe that over a year-long campaign would be required to bring the city’s police stations back into working condition.
‘Dire need of renovation’
The police stations in zone east are in no better condition than those in the south. Dawn found during its survey that of the nine police stations in Gulshan-i-Iqbal Town, only three have toilets – which are described by their users as “just useable.”
“A couple of police stations here don’t have even have any such facilities while the toilets in the other four are in such a state that you could not use them,” said an officer. “As far as drinking water is concerned, two police stations have electric coolers while the others meet their needs on their own.”
In zone east’s Shah Faisal Town’s five police stations, similarly, there is no toilet in the Malir Cantt police station. And while the other four have this facility, “drinking water remains a problem,” said one of the senior town officials. “We have heard that the administration has placed orders for water coolers, and we can only hope that this is the case.”
The personnel posted to six police stations in Landhi Town, meanwhile, have to find toilet and drinking water facilities outside their offices. “Toilets were constructed in almost all the police stations,” conceded a senior police officer, “but the lack of maintenance over the years has left them unusable.”
The facilities in half a dozen police stations in Gadap Town are also in dire need of renovations, and an official complained to Dawn that the town was ignored by the authorities despite several formal requests from the relevant officers.
Of nine police stations in Bin Qasim Town, similarly, the policemen at five stations are compelled to use toilets in mosques and schools in the area, or make use of private facilities using personal connections. “The state of the availability of drinking water is even worse,” said an official. “Our hopes have only been rekindled by the fact that the town’s SP recently issued a tender for the construction and renovation of washrooms.”
Tenders issued by the SPs in North Nazimabad and New Karachi towns of zone west tell the same sorry tale about the state of the areas’ police stations.
Half of North Nazimabad Town’s six police stations lack any facility for toilets or drinking water, while only two of New Karachi Town’s six police stations are capable of meeting staff needs within the buildings. “The other four do have facilities but they can’t be used by any normal man,” said an officer of the town police. “So policemen are compelled to go outside.”
In Gulberg Town, “the situation in the area’s six police stations is marginally better as far as washrooms are concerned, but almost all of them are in need of renovation work,” said an area officer. “But drinking water is a major problem, which is posing serious health issues for our policemen.”
The situation is as dismal in Liaquatabad Town’s six police stations, most of which have obsolete sewerage systems while some suffer seepage problems. And while an official said that “renovation work has been planned to fix these problems,” he was unable to elaborate upon the schedule for the initiative.
In Site Town’s police stations, some of the officers have managed to meet the need for drinking water by installing water coolers on their own, but there are few toilets. “The initiative taken by the new police administration has led us to hope that the problems will be addressed shortly,” commented an officer.
Such moves are certainly the need of the hour. While the police force regularly comes under fire for alleged inefficiency, corruption and incompetence, the process of law enforcement cannot be expected to run smoothly when personnel are forced to work under inhuman conditions and resort to external contacts to meet their basic needs.
