Active role of policewomen required to counter terrorism

Police stations staffed by Women police officers were established by Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 1994. Since then, women have been working in the major cities of every province.

Women police should be collaborating with men police in order to fight terrorism, but unfortunately the culture of Pakistan discourages the role of women in law enforcement agencies. The importance of policewomen is an urgent need these days, especially with Pakistan peace ratings deteriorating every day.

All check posts in the country are stationed by men. Since policemen cannot check the female citizens, they are usually exempted and left unchecked. The terrorists and the antisocial elements would be aware of this fact, and might take advantage of this loophole in smuggling dangerous ammunitions into a city.

The people of Pakistan have conflicting traditions. These conflicting attitudes cannot be changed overnight. One of the barriers to encouraging females in opting for law enforcement jobs is the environment that they work in. A job that requires lot of intermingling between the genders is considered as unacceptable by the most of the populace in Pakistan. The government should make policies that are compatible with the traditions of the local cultures.

In Iran, almost similar traditions can be found, but the policewomen, in Iran, are fighting crime together with the policemen in the country. They have a very simply rule that policemen will be handle the men and policewomen will handle the women.

The situation in Pakistan is far worse than Iran. Every single day, at least one person dies in Pakistan. The authorities appear to be bewildered about the amount of ammunition and force the antisocial elements have mustered. With female police deployed at every check posts, every car would be checked including the female citizens, closing the loophole for terrorist to extract.

The government must consider the matter of employing women in the security forces of the country seriously, as they could prove a major asset in tackling the war on terror.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=1328

Posted by Nabeel Salam on Oct 25 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