LAHORE: Lahore police officials instruct the appointment of more female police officers after receiving a jubilant public reaction to posting six lady officers as heads of investigation wings at the city’s police stations.
The official appointments have been made at six police stations in each of the six police divisions in the city.
Inspector Farhat was posted as the investigation in charge at Wahdat Colony police station, Sub-Inspector Sadaf Rasheed at Quaid-i-Azam Industrial Area police station, SI Sumaira Nazir at Model Town police station, SI Ambrin Rehman at Defence police station, SI Shazia Kausar at Akbari Gate and SI Sonia Liaqat as investigation in-charge at Racecourse police station.
Presently, Lahore has only one lady police station out of 84 even though women constitute 48 per cent of the city’s population. However, the nature of the risks prevented placing female officers in such potentially dangerous positions.
Although the postings constituted barely five per cent of the total 84 police postings, the move remains positively welcomed as it increases female representation in the police and inspires more women to take leadership roles.
A Lahore police department official shared that female underrepresentation in police stations had gone unnoticed before but they are now actively looking to lady police officers to stop gender discrimination.
IGP Faisal Shahkar expressed his plan to encourage more female officers and change the station culture and the public’s perception of the police.