Sheeba Shah is Pakistan’s First Female Inspector General

In a historic first, a woman from Shikarpur has become the first female Inspector General (IG). Sheeba Shah has always been an overachiever and now she’s made history.

Hailing from the historic city of Shikarpur in Sindh, the lady cop began her career as a Deputy Superintendent Police (DSP) in June 1999 after passing the Public Service Commission exams. Since then she’s served as SP and SSP.

This isn’t the first time Sheeba Shah has made history. Turns out she was also the first female Deputy Inspector General (DIG). In March 2019, she became the DIG of Sindh Prisons for Women and Children.

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Sheba Shah is the first female DIG in Pakistan and the only female DIG in all the four provinces. How come we haven’t had a female DIG since? The same reason behind the scarcity of women in the workplace to behind with – gender discrimination.

The lady cop told Independent Urdu how the climb to the top was not easy for a woman. Law enforcement is a profession deemed a ‘man’s job’ to begin with. Women work harder just to stay in the field. Yet Sheeba Shah managed to climb the ladder in 20 years.

“During my twenty years of service, I have faced discrimination many times. In this patriarchal society, when a female officer comes, they (men) have a lot of problems. My subordinates had a problem giving protocol or saluting to a female officer.”

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Her account of the opposition from largely male subordinates was overwhelming to say the least. Turns out that even policemen would have a hard time just following protocol and doing their jobs, just because a woman was in charge.

“Sometimes there was great disappointment. I used to ask them that if you give protocol to male officers then why don’t you give it to women of the same rank? But in a patriarchal society, this goes on.”

 

Maybe we might not even have a female DIG and IG had it not been for her family’s encouragement.

“But my family, especially my father, pep-talked (me through) a lot. He used to say that no department is bad and you should work here as a social worker instead of being a policewoman. This gave me courage.”

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Seems our first female IG has encouraged the tide to blow in the right direction. We see more women in the police force today then we did in the 90s. We still have a long way to go, but for now, these baby steps help.

“I have always told my subordinates whether an officer is a man or a woman, we salute their position,… They no longer feel that their officer is a woman. Things are much better now.”