The Other Pakistan: Rays of Hope Part 2
Deputy IG Police (Kohat) Zulfikar Cheema
George Herbert once said that 'hope is the poor man's bread'. For millions of Pakistanis who are starving from an acute shortage of food today, it is only this bread of hope that continues to feed their soul. This post seeks to provide more such bread and is the second part of my rays of hope series that seeks to provide some much needed light in the dark tunnel that has been Pakistan for too long.
The second ray of hope covers the story of a upstanding senior police officer namely the Deputy IG Police of Kohat one Zulfikar Cheema who refused to engage in election rigging before the February 18 elections. In doing so he stood tall in a noble pursuit of principle over profit and he must be lauded for it.
It is especially hoped that the news report will help to inform Pakistanis the world over that the 'thana' too has been caught by the wind of change in this new Pakistan. The article needs no introduction as it is awe-inspiring and full of hope and is written by the legendary Ansar Abbasi. It is reproduced in full below and can be seen here :
In the highly-politicised police department and at a time when law enforcers are accused of being excessively misused to manipulate the forthcoming elections, at least one top cop is swimming against the tide and has so far survived.
He had refused to allow the force under his command to make politicised arrests of post-Benazir Bhutto murder “rioters” and has urged his officers to stay neutral as public servants or they would become “personal henchmen” of the rulers.
A top administrative source in the Frontier administration confided to this correspondent that Deputy Inspector General of Police in Kohat, Zulfikar Cheema, recently refused to arrest any of the so-called post-Benazir killing rioters on the basis of the “list” prepared by latent forces.
Instead, the source said, he told the provincial Inspector General of Police to find his replacement if the desired arrests were to be achieved. Consequently, he prevailed and did not arrest anyone from a concocted list of wanted persons, including the names of boycotting lawyers and opposition voices of the Kohat region.
On Thursday, Cheema chaired a meeting of all police officers of Kohat and made it clear to them that he would book them under criminal charges and for violating the election laws if anyone of them was found politically biased during the election process.
Cheema, whose track record is no different from what he is currently doing, even dared to issue a press release after the meeting, conveying to his subordinates that if the police start booking the opposition voices in fake cases and torture them on the direction of rulers, then the law enforcers would not stay as public servants but would rather become the personal henchmen of rulers.
Referring to the recent media reports where the law enforcers were shown arresting, torturing and in cases even disgracing lawyers, journalists and women, Cheema said such incidents were a matter of shame for the whole police department.
Police, he said, must stay neutral and earn the respect of all, particularly the educated class and the intelligentsia of the country.
“We must not serve as the rulers personal henchmen,” he reiterated and hoped that the rulers would, too, not use the police as their personal hired guns or the same police would be unfair to the rulers once they were out of power.
He explained to the officers that the police would be violating the election laws as well as the Pakistan Penal Code if they favoured or took the side of any contesting candidate or party.
For such a violation, he made it clear that he would not spare anyone under his command. Such a violator, he said, would not only be formally booked but also arrested and prosecuted.
Citing the sayings of the Father of the Nation, Cheema said the Quaid in his address to the civil servants had said Òthe governments come and go but the civil servants stay so they should remain neutral and must not be influenced by anyone even if they have to sacrifice for thisÓ.
Cheema has been the superintendent of police in Rawalpindi, Lahore and Gujranwala but he could not stay for long anywhere for his positive “notoriety” of sparing no one. During his stay in Rawalpindi, he launched a crackdown against the gambling dens and started his operation from those run by a former sitting ruling MP. For the same reason, he was transferred to Lahore, where he launched a crackdown on both gambling and prostitution dens in the city. He was again transferred.
Later, the officer was tested for some other field assignments but ultimately dumped against the clerical secretariat and non-policing jobs.
For an extended tenure, he served as an instructor in the National Police Academy and finally got posting in the NWFP where during the last few years, he is heading the third region as the DIG. It seems the time for another transfer has again come.
Zulfikar Cheema Zindabad
Wasim Arif - 24th April 2008, 22:10 PK Time
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