Lahore Police to Appoint More Female Investigators

Lahore Police’s top brass has approved appointing more female police officers in the police stations of the provincial capital.

The move comes after it received a positive public response for the appointment of six women officers as the heads of investigation wings in their initial ten days of posting at police stations across the metropolis.

One female officer was stationed at each police station of the six divisions of Lahore.

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.

Even though it accounted for nearly five percent of entire postings in the 84 police stations, the step was lauded as it enhanced women’s representation in the police force.

An official detailed that the move emboldened women to take up leadership roles.

He added that the underrepresentation of women in police stations had been disregarded. Lahore has only one female police station out of 84, despite women comprising 48 percent of the city’s total population and requiring the assistance of female officers to combat gender discrimination.

The reason decision-making authorities have kept female police officials out of the investigative wing is due to the nature of the risks it involves.

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 revealed that the burden of cases on Investigation Officers (IOs) has resulted in more crimes because criminals continue their activities due to substandard prosecution and investigation.

The Lahore Investigation Police also reported issues of a lack of IOs, and shortage of staff, equipment, transport, and funds to the former IGP in April this year.