Dressed up in their worn-out police uniforms, and sitting on chairs in a circular fashion with writing pads in their hands, some 53 police officers are taking notes on a lesson in counter-terrorism and history of terror acts in Pakistan.
The lecturer at first tries to ascertain their general knowledge on the subject but has a hard time in getting any correct answers.
“When did the first terror attack in the country occur?” he asks, but all he gets is silence in response.
These officers, with most having over 20 years of policing experience are part of the advance course taught to the law enforcement agencies at the Sihala Police Training Centre, located on the outskirts of Islamabad.
This school, the largest in the country was established in the 1960s and is credited with training thousands of officials from across Pakistan. It has state-of-the-art technology at its disposal, and provides training to officials ranging from fresh entrants to senior officers.
“We teach them criminal law and how to investigate crimes better and ensure that evidence from a crime scene is properly collected. Not only that, we also teach them how to prepare a good investigation report since most of the time due to poor reporting, the judiciary throws out cases and suspects do not get convicted,” says one of the instructors, on his way to conduct a class at the scientific training wing.
Here, police officers are learning how to lift finger and footprints from crime scenes through various methods. One of the officers however, complains that even if they get such evidence, it’s hard to verify the data collected. “The last census happened many years ago; so many people have not updated their records with the government and do not even have identity cards. At times, National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) does not cooperate in providing the police with the information,” the officer explains.
Others complain of the lack of resources at police stations. While at the academy, they are given a proper investigation kit, but back at their respective stations, they do not have such facilities. “There is only one proper investigation kit which is usually given to the district police headquarters and each station house officer has to borrow it when a crime happens in his vicinity. This sharing of resources usually ends up compromising the investigation process,” another police officer adds.
Close to the scientific training center is a crime scene reenactment ground. Here, an instructor points to a blown up car and explains how they have been training officials in counter-terrorism investigations. “The Pakistani police is at the forefront of the War on Terror, and we need to ensure our men are equipped with the knowledge and skills to counter this threat,” he says.
Other police officers here agree. “We have finally woken up to this threat and I am glad to see that we are being trained in counter-terrorism,” says Farrukh Ejaz, one of the advance class students, who hails from South Punjab.
Ejaz has 25 years of policing experience; he only recently joined the academy and will be eligible for a promotion once he successfully completes the course here. “In the last decade or so, terrorism has become a big issue; therefore the role of policing has changed too. Hence such trainings are essential,” he adds.
While at Sihala, policemen are being trained to fight modern crimes that include terrorism, security experts feel too little is being done to provide resources to the police force at large, especially with regards to counter-terrorism efforts, due to the focus of policy makers and international donors on armed forces, neglecting the crucial efforts of the crime-fighting force of police.
“If Pakistan and the international community want to get rid of terrorism emanating from our country, a serious effort is needed to overhaul the criminal justice system with a focus on the capacity building of the police force,” says Afzal Shigri, the former Inspector General of Sindh province.
Recently, United States provided $23.5 million to support Pakistan’s Police, Counternarcotics, and Rule of Law Programs. On the other hand, the armed forces have received over $10.7 billion since 9/11 by the Americans to compensate for their efforts in War on Terror. The difference in funds allocated to both is what many experts question.
Also, the recent American Congressional Research Service report observes that Pakistani military maintains an institutional focus on conventional war-fighting capabilities oriented toward India and that it has used U.S. security assistance to bolster these capabilities while paying insufficient attention to the kinds of counterinsurgency capacity that U.S. policy-makers might prefer to see strengthened.
So while the military focuses on building its anti-India capacity, the police force suffers.
According to Mr Shigri, the police are ultimately at the forefront of fighting terrorism in the country. “Currently, the police are involved with firefighting only. There is no strategic vision communicated to them to fight terrorism. No one even takes their input on how to build new counter-terrorism laws. And there seems to be internal organizational mess too. For example, the forensic lab which can help in investigating terror acts exists only in some parts of the country but in other places they are barely functioning and there is no coordination between such different investigative structures. Similarly, the bomb disposal squads throughout the country lack training and resources,” he adds.
Mr Shigri however feels that the money channeled in the past towards improving the criminal justice system and reforms in the police were misused. “In early 2000s, more than $300 million of international funding was given to improve the judicial and policing systems but the money was not spent on its stated purpose,” he adds.
Reports suggest that the funds were utilized by the criminal justice system to build new lavish offices, and other buildings and very little was spent on capacity building of the law enforcement agencies.
This year, Pakistan allocated Rs158 billion on provincial policing budgets, which comprised of less than seven percent of the total budgets of each province.
Experts feel that even though this allocation is significant, most of this money is misappropriated and corruption is rampant in lower police departments due to low salaries, which is another issue that needs to be tackled, besides capacity building of the police.
Others also feel that crime-fighting and counter-terrorism should be handled by separate departments within the police force. “There needs to be an independent anti-terror unit within the police, which is currently missing,” says Ahmad Chinoy, who heads the Citizen Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) in Karachi.
Mr Chinoy feels that with the changing face of terrorism in the country, the police are the only force that has strong networks at neighborhood levels. “The counter-terrorism efforts need to be led by the intelligence gathered by the police because they know the ground realities and keep a check on everything happening in their neighborhood. Unfortunately, we are seeing less and less reliance on police for intelligence gathering purposes,” he adds.
Back at the Sihala Police Training Centre, some junior police officers realise that the future is not very promising.
“Here at the training school, it is the best time we have with all such fancy resources and advance knowledge imparted to us. But out there in the field, we know there will be no such resources at our command to be able to do proper investigations in accordance with the training we get here,” says a police officer who recently joined the force.
Most of his colleagues being trained here with him agree.
However, here too echoes the complaint that the armed forces are controlling the security affairs of the country. “We want to fight terrorism. But how can we when the intelligence agencies do not want to cooperate with us. Also, they decide the security policy and we just have to follow because we are not empowered enough to stand up to them, even if and when they are wrong,” concluded another police officer.
Such palpable feeling of impotence and inadequacy is neither good for the morale nor for performance of law enforcers. No wonder the police is more often found ducking and taking cover than toughing it out with grit and determination.
The writer is a journalist based in Islamabad. He tweets @TahaSSiddiqui
