Why I don’t agree respecting every policeman?

Days ago, a beautiful and a touching TVC came across my timeline. That TVC brilliantly portrayed a policeman doing his duty on the road during the recent lockdown due to COVID-19. This is no doubt an incredible ad and it imparts the message to the audience that policeman; being the frontline warriors against coronavirus, must be appreciated and respected. But you know, advertisement is not equal to reality let alone the degree of equivalency.

Feeling emotional? Good. Now you must be pondering over the relevancy of this whole presentation with the topic. Some of you might be thinking if I am saying this TVC is wrong and vague. To clear your confusion, No! I am not thinking this way. I am just pointing towards the problem which troubles my mind. When we come out of this sweet world of happy ads, we get to know that the situation in real is very grave and contradictory.

After reading a few captions and comments on that TVC in which the users called for respecting policeman the same way people respect their armed forces. Now, here I want to add my two cents of thoughts. Are people comparing the Police with the Army? As a citizen of Karachi, I am deeply concerned why the citizens are calling for respecting police like we respect army. Don’t get me wrong here. Under no circumstances, I am calling to denigrate the police.

Let’s assess the on ground situation. I have question for all ordinary citizens. Have you ever come across a policeman who had helped you completely? I am always disappointed by the Sindh Police. Either your cellphone is stolen or your wallet, your jewelry or your hard-earned vehicle, whenever you’ll report to the police, they will turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to your problems. They think these crimes are common and don’t feel they are the ones responsible to curb these crimes. In most of the cases, it is said that the police is itself involved with the criminals and take a fixed commission from them.

Police also have a responsibility to stop the illegal activities in the cities but I have always seen the opposite. They are interested to take extortion and Bhatta from the wrongdoers and allow them to do break the law easily. These criminals in uniform don’t even miss the smallest opportunity to make money for themselves and doesn’t care about the plight and pain of common taxpayer. Why would a common citizen respect them after they are a source of their difficulties and problems?

Why would anyone respect them when they failed to make their jurisdictions a better and safe place? Maintaining law and order in the city is the primary responsibility of the police. Instead, Army and rangers took the criminals and terrorists to the cleaners and made this city a safe place. This is how army earns respect because they know how to serve their people whom taxes are being used to give them salaries. Police cannot even control the street crimes. The only thing they are good at is making the life of innocent citizen hell. They are also good at being a slave of political leaders, rulers, and elites.

This blog doesn’t mean that each and every policeman is bad. There are many good and honest policeman who have done everything to serve the people. Some even laid their lives for us. The problem is that they are in minority and hence, a part of this rotten system. The majority is corrupt and so, the services of the minorities doesn’t make a big difference. Anyways, I salute them for their services. May Allah bless their souls and send a strong leadership that can fix this department. Maybe then we will respect the police like our army.