The top brass of the Lahore Police has given its approval for the appointment of more female police personnel in the stations of the provincial capital.
The action was taken after the public reacted favorably to the appointment of six female police officers to lead investigation wings during their first 10 days of duty at police stations throughout the metropolis.
In each of Lahore’s six police stations, there was a single female officer on duty.
Inspector Farhat Bhatti was made Head of Investigation at Wahdat Colony Police Station, Sub-Inspector (SI), Sadaf Rasheed was given the same charge at Quaid-e-Azam Industrial Area Police Station, SI Sumaira Nazir at Model Town Police Station, SI Ambrin Rehman at Defence A Police Station, SI Shazia Kasur at Akbari Gate Police Station, and SI Sonia Liaquat at Racecourse Police Station.
The decision was praised since it increased the number of women in the police force even if it only represented around 5% of all posts in the 84 police stations.
An official explained how the action encouraged women to seek leadership positions.
He continued by saying that it had been ignored that women were underrepresented in police stations. Despite women making up 48 percent of the city’s population and needing the support of female officers to combat gender discrimination, Lahore only has one female police station out of the city’s 84.
Due to the nature of the hazards involved, decision-making authorities have kept female police officers out of the investigation wing.
The Inspector General of Police (IGP) Punjab, Faisal Shahkar, recently announced his plan to empower female officers, claiming that their appointment would transform the thana culture and police image among the public. He explained that serving in Lahore is a tough job for police officials of all ranks as it annually reports over 0.2 million crimes, which is more than the total crimes in half of Punjab. The investigation wing, in particular, faces big challenges in increasing the conviction rate against habitual criminals.
He admitted that more crimes have been committed as a result of the cases that Investigation Officers (IOs) are required to handle and the poor quality of the prosecution and investigation.
In April of this year, the Lahore Investigation Police also informed the former IGP of concerns with a lack of IOs, as well as a lack of personnel, equipment, vehicles, and funds.
