KARACHI: It must have been the first time for so many schoolgirls to gather at a police station and be so excited about it too. But Mahnoor, Arfa, Aster, Bisma, Ammara, Alishba, Muskan, Hoorain and the others at the Defence Police Station on 27th January wanted to talk about building trust, about spreading peace, about service to humanity, about pride and about strength to bring about change.
The occasion was an inspiring event titled ‘Your Safety, Our Mission’ organised by Zindagi Trust and South police in collaboration with SMB Fatima Jinnah and Khatoon-i-Pakistan schools whose students displayed their artwork which symbolises trust, safety and positive relationship between the police and public.
While speaking on the occasion, famous singer and founder of Zindagi Trust, Shehzad Roy, said that everywhere in the world children are advised to reach out to police personnel when lost or in any other kind of trouble but out here in Pakistan there are so many apprehensions about this. In fact, parents advise their children to avoid the police to stay out of trouble. “It is due to the disconnect between civil society and government institutions,” he said. “So it was important that civil society itself stepped up to create awareness regarding the police and its mission to keep people safe,” he added.
In order to do that, Zindagi Trust and students from its two adopted schools, SMB Fatima Jinnah and Khatoon-i-Pakistan, created meaningful artwork to hang inside the Defence Police Station. It is art, which portrays human rights, animal rights and police duty. “The reason for this exercise is to build a connection with the police. You may disconnect all you want from your police stations but in case of an emergency it is where you will just have to go for help,” said Roy.
Visit Defence police station, install their creative paintings on its walls
“I know that what we are doing will not reform police stations or change the entire police infrastructure but these are still baby steps towards ownership of our institutions and breaking the psychological barriers that we have created between us,” he added. “I will also urge our civil society to come and visit their area police stations for no special reason other than to appreciate the work of the police. Your distancing yourself from the police is also the reason for their deterioration. And this initiative of building friendly connections was also the police’s idea. So we are moving towards positivity through our children,” he said.
DIG South Syed Asad Raza Shah also said that the best way to bridge the gap between the police and the public was through children’s art.
Karachi Police Chief Javed Alam Odho said that like it is said that the realisation of the problem is the first step towards the solution, so in society there are both positives and negatives. “We the police also realise the ills in our society just like other people do. We also realise the problems within the police. Bringing improvements in the criminal justice system is a top priority of society all over the world but how to do it in a poor country such as Pakistan with scarce resources? Our police stations feel like hard and difficult places. But we want to differ that impression,” he said, adding that they have made efforts to improve their police stations’ look to make them seem more professional and friendly.
“But to make our police stations public-friendly requires changing the culture. We want to work on community policing, installing CCTV cameras, neighbourhood watch and internships of college and university students,” he said. “Participation from the community will open the way for improvement,” he said.
Later, the students whose artwork was displayed on the police station walls spoke about their inspiration for the pictures. Alishba Shahid, a class 10 student at Khatoon-i-Pakistan School said that she wanted to highlight unity and protection for all through her art so she decided to include all the provinces of Pakistan in her painting by drawing something significant to each province. Eman Siddiqui, a teacher from the same school, said that before the students were selected for painting, the school also held an art competition. “But we already had some idea of the real artists in school,” she said.
A purple painting with a black chain growing hands that reached out to each other and with the simple words ‘Aman ke Muhafiz’ made by a team of five girls from SMB Fatima Jinnah School, namely, Mahnoor Imran, Arfa Rafiq, Aster Sabir, Bisma Sarfaraz and Ammara Lakho, was Shehzad Roy’s favourite painting in the entire collection. “What a concept and what a clear and simple way of highlighting it,” he said appreciatively. The same team of students was responsible for making four other paintings, one of which also highlighted animal rights and how the police also help animals in trouble.
Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2025