Police check posts hamper life in Islamabad

With the increasing number of check posts all over the capital city, one might hope some reduction in terrorism or the crime rates in Islamabad, but to no avail. Islamabad, once known for its free and open roads have been reduced to nothing less than a war zone.

Traffic in the city has soared in the recent years, and with the check posts blocking the roads and doing nothing but cause more traffic jams, getting to a place on time has become a challenging task these days.

The authorities give one reason for abundance of check posts, ‘Security risk!’ No doubt, peace in Pakistan has turned into a fantasy, but the question that needs answering is have a check post, in Islamabad ever thwarted a terror incident.

At least one Pakistani losses his life due to a criminal act in the country, one must ask the purpose of these check posts if not to protect the citizens.  To make matters worse, the check posts are at times deserted with the barriers still on the road, causing more problems for the people. This leaves doubts about the seriousness of the police in providing security.

The many checkpoints in the city raises a possibility that the policemen stationed at the posts would slack off and leave the processing to the next check post coming within 5 km. Similarly, the next check post would not check a car by assuming that it would’ve already been checked in the last checkpoint.

In order to reduce this possibility, the authorities should place the check posts strategically, limit their number and be well supplied.

The people view these checkpoints as nothing but another way to harass them. Some people also claim that the policemen are known for taking bribes. The government and local authorities should take proper monitoring and evaluation in order to check the productivity of the check posts as well as make sure that there are no incidents involving corruption.

If these check posts were productive, more facilitating, and limited in number the people would have been more supporting towards the security of their country. The security of the country is important, but not by burdening the already burdened public.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=1213

Posted by Nabeel Salam on Oct 22 2011. Filed under Opinion, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry