KARACHI: Deputy Inspector General of Police Training, Sharjeel Kharal said that gender equality is more than a goal in itself adding that it is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance.
Kharal was expressing his views in a consultative session attended by many senior police officials from Karachi Police organized by Individual Land Pakistan on Tuesday at a local hotel.
Kharal said that gender sensitization in police needs for gender equality adding that the constitution of Pakistan provides equally status and opportunity to all citizens in the country. He said it also has a profound impact on policing in peace keeping and insisting the importance of equal representation of women in the police department.
He asked to police officials here you people are talking very positively what happened while you are in ground; need such potential during duty as well, insisting on issue he was with the view that one day session isn’t enough and overnight change cant not be brought we need to work towards the issue constantly, he added. Talking about the issue, DSP Garden Shehla Ghani said that police facilities must meet the needs of the female officers. There must be equal opportunities for promotions and training. There must also be equal opportunities for promotions and training and there should also be mechanisms for female officers to share experiences.
Shiren Khan DSP Finance and Welfare expressed her point of view that it was very encouraging step but this type of session must be in routine so that the gap may be removed. She added that it was a very productive step which may broad the vision of male officials. Khan added that Police are most secured department for women where no one has dare to harass them.
SP Orangi town Abid Baloch said that gender awareness required not only intellectual effort but also sensitivity and open-mindedness. It opens up the widest possible range of life options for both women and men.
SP Saddar Town Tauqeer Naeem said that citizen centric policing was only possible if police personnel were sensitized on human and gender rights. “There is a strong need for us to sensitize our colleagues on gender sensitivity.” Naeem added that there must be coordination between male and female officials and there was lack of training in Police Department, which must be enhanced so that during training they might learn about such things and change the mindset.
Iqbal Ahmed Dehto, Member, Curriculum Development of Sindh Police shared his experience that while police reforms do include citizens exchange within the dynamics of service delivery for making police stations gender-responsive involving women rights organizations, sensitizing civil society to gender concerns and involving institutional stakeholders becomes imperative to break through social and cultural barriers domesticating and shaming violence against women. Dehto added that AD Khwaja was working to have more women in police, so every district must have number of police women.
Event coordinator Sundus Syeda said the purpose of this session was discussing the issue of citizen centric and gender sensitive policing in Sindh. It was very productive session where they discussed various issues and solutions in reference to the issue as gender sensitizing is about changing the behaviour and instilling the empathy into the views that one hold about the two sexes.
Syeda informed: “According to a research, there are a total of 4020 women police personnel in Pakistan which makes a percentage of 0.94, which is quite low and there is a total of 19 women police stations in the country out of which 5 are in Sindh, 3 in Karachi and 2 in interior Sindh, which needs to be increased.”