By: Javed Aziz Khan
PESHAWAR: Swabi and Swat districts have taken the lead in establishing women desks for complainants at three police stations in line with the policy of the provincial government to change the thana culture.
A number of other districts have also set up special women desks at police stations to facilitate female complainants.In Swabi, women desks were set up at the Lahor, Swabi and Kalu Khan police stations where complainants could approach the policewomen to lodge cases.
In Swat, women desks were established at Mingora, Rahimabad and Saidu police stations.“In fact we had established a female complaint desk at the office of district police officer (DPO) a couple of months back. Now on the directives of the inspector general of police (IGP), we have set up such desks at three key police stations,” District Police Officer of Swabi Dr Mian Saeed told The News.
The official said a female desk was also established at the Bacha Khan Medical Complex in Swabi for facilitating females facing problems at the hospital.
The Swat Police have also set up a female desk at the police post in Saidu Sharif Hospital. The provincial government led by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf had announced that separate desks for female complainants would be established at every or most of the police stations so that women would feel comfortable visiting a police station for lodging complaints.
Women in Swat and other districts have appreciated the step, but said it should not be confined to placing a separate table in a corner of the police station with a lady constable sitting behind it.
Two women police stations were established to facilitate complainants in Peshawar and Abbottabad but none could register a single FIR even two decades after these were commissioned.
There are a number of women police officers and constables in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police, but they are doing nothing significant except taking part in raids or doing security duties at VIP events.
A former capital city police officer Peshawar had planned to depute the women officers as additional station house officers, but the plan could not be materialised.
A woman officer, however, was posted as in-charge of Rescue 999 in Hayatabad in recent years.
