As police forces across the country commemorated lost comrades on Police Martyrs Day this past Friday, the KP IGP noted some sobering realities: police officers risk their lives in the fight against terrorists, gangs, and criminals, but compensation, equipment, and training remain inadequate. Speaking on the province’s police force’s issues, IGP Akhtar Gandapur cited the government’s recent approval of a benefit package that includes free education and health care for the children and widows of police officers killed in the line of duty. However, he also stated that the salaries of police officers in KP — a province at the vanguard of the anti-militancy campaign — were lower than those of officers elsewhere in the country.
The administration ought to take this comment from a senior police officer seriously. Incentives for police units across the province must be robust to attract and keep good officers and compensate them for a difficult profession given the high cost of living and growth in militancy.
Pakistan’s police force has consistently received insufficient funding. There are reports that police officers struggle with resources and lack access to contemporary equipment around the nation. This unquestionably has a direct effect on their performance because many officers lack the drive needed to fulfil their jobs in an efficient manner. Low incentives have no positive effect on officer morale.
Some are forced to seek for other means of subsisting; in other instances, they engage in bad habits like taking bribes. The public has mistrust for the police despite the fact that they have been on the front lines defending citizens from significant terror assaults because of corruption, political intervention, and budget constraints. Numerous people were killed in an egregious jihadist attack on a mosque inside the Peshawar police base earlier this year. Attacks on police officers who were accompanying polio squads have occurred frequently.
IGP Akhtar Gandapur appreciated the government’s recent approval of a benefit package offering free education and health to the children and widows of killed cops while discussing the difficulties facing the province’s police force. He did, however, also draw attention to the fact that police salaries in KP, a province at the forefront of the fight against militancy, were lower than those of officers in other parts of the nation. The administration ought to take this comment from a senior police officer seriously. Incentives for police units across the province must be robust to attract and keep good officers and compensate them for a difficult profession given the high cost of living and growth in militancy.
Pakistan’s police force has received more funding than
The higher riverine regions of Sindh are overrun by criminal gangs that outnumber and outsmart the local police force. Such tales abound in both large and small cities where crime is rampant and residents are defenceless against armed bandits. Our government needs to do more to support the cops financially and in terms of tools. Sending unprepared, underpaid men and women into battle in this situation is inexcusable.