The official Shehri-CBE Blog

Citizen-Police Interaction

By SHEHRI CBE | August 29, 2012

National Project for Participatory Citizen-Police interaction & training for improved policing of Human Rights Violations & advocating Police Policy Reforms

The Project
For the past year, Shehri-Citizens for a Better Environment (Shehri-CBE) with the support of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has been working with policemen on the project “ Participatory Citizen Police Interaction and training for improved policing of human rights violations. “

As the name suggests ,the project attempted to sensitize the police personnel to address citizens needs for better policing with a special focus on human rights training. The location of this project was Jamshed Town Karachi (the city of Karachi is administratively divided into towns).

It is important to mention that the Shehri-NED project “Participatory Citizen Police Interaction and training for improved policing of human rights violations. “ was based on preliminary trust building work that Shehri-CBE had done. In 2006, Shehri-CBE with the support of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation had conducted some trust building exercises with policemen. However, the Shehri-NED project has been responsible for the following:

 Increased interaction between citizens and the police personnel
 Increased awareness of police personnel of human rights issues
 Police personnel becoming citizen centric

Shehri-Citizens for a Better Environment (Shehri-CBE) is conducting a year long project titled, “ National Project for Participatory Citizens-Police Interaction & training for improving policing of Human Rights violations and advocating police reforms.” The main objective of the above stated project of human rights sensitization with the police is to build and expand on the already concluded work of Shehri-CBE in improving policing of human rights. The project is participatory and thus seeks inputs from all stakeholders as what in their opinion is better policing, how to make the police more responsive as well as address the trust deficit between the citizens and the police.

The project has two components. Component I consists of conducting human rights sensitization and awareness training workshops based on indigenously developed training modules for police personnel from interior Sindh, Karachi , Islamabad and Police College Sihala . Component II consists of opening and conducting a dialogue on police reforms and asking various interest groups such as the citizens, media, police personnel themselves, political parties and parliamentarians as to what kind of police reforms should be done.

Specifically, Shehri-CBE seeks, through this proposal that is divided in two components, assistance from NED to:

Component 1

 Expand the project to include police personnel from Interior Sindh.
 Federal Capital of Islamabad.
 Inclusion of nominations from the National Police Academy, Islamabad

Component 2

 Advocate for Police Reforms Ordinance to be an made an Act of Parliament

Thus in the “Participatory Citizen Police Interaction and training for improved policing of human rights violations” the initiative would be extended nationally. Trained police personnel who have participated in the July 2007 to June 2008 “Participatory Citizen Police Interaction and training for improved policing of human rights violations” (Shehri-NED project) will be encouraged to not only share their experiences with their national colleagues during the workshops but also serve as resource persons for the project.

Component 1 – Training and Capacity Building – Justification, Objectives and Target Beneficiaries

The project, “ National Project for Participatory Citizen-Police interaction & training for improved policing of Human Rights Violations and advocating policy police reforms ” builds upon the ongoing Shehri-NED project “ Participatory Citizen Police Interaction and training for improved policing of human rights violations. “As mentioned previously, the latter project was only confined to Jamshed Town, Karachi one of eighteen towns of Karachi. Encouraged by the success of the project and responding to the demands of the project target group i.e. the police personnel to broaden the outreach of the project.

Therefore the “National Project for Participatory Citizen-Police interaction & training for improved policing of Human Rights Violations” would be focused on:

 Thirty nominated police personnel from various towns of Karachi.
 Thirty nominated police personnel from Interior Sindh.
 Thirty nominated police personnel from the Federal Capital of Islamabad.
 Thirty nominated police personnel from the National Police Academy, Islamabad which will give a national flower.

These training modules covered the following areas:

 Training Module – 1: Detailed appraisal of all the relevant policies/rules/legislations pertaining to human rights violations operative in Pakistan (Duration – 2 Days)

 Training Module – 2: The religious dimension and understanding of human rights (with a particular focus on human rights and Islam)
(Duration – 2 Days)

 Training Module – 3: Human rights within the context of the vulnerable sectors of society (training based on specific case studies dealing with human rights violations of the rights of women, children and minorities)
(Duration – 2 Days)
 Training Module – 4: Human rights within the global context (the issue of human rights as it is understood and acknowledged within the global context – Pakistan’s commitment to global compacts such as the UN Declaration on Human Rights)
(Duration – 2 Days)

The project would positively impact the target groups in two distinct manners that are listed below:

 Specified Training/capacity building – Training programs/institutional resource development
 Meaningful collaboration with communities on joint projects/activities

Topics: Projects | No Comments »

Encroachment of Parks in North Nazimabad

By SHEHRI CBE | June 30, 2009

Re: Encroachments on Parks/Amenity Spaces
1. Plot No.ST-5/2, Block-E, North Nazimabad
2. Plot No.ST-4, Block-D, North Nazimabad
3. ST-1, Block –I, North Nazimabad
4. ST-9, Block-A, North Nazimabad
5. Green Belt encroached by Pizza Hutt near Matric Board

Dear Sirs

We received an email titled ‘Vanishing Parks of Nazimabad’ (copy attached. We personally went to inspect the areas mentioned, and then tallied them with CDGK plans of the areas concerned and found that all the accusations are correct and need to be dealt with. We have attached pictures taken of the various locations in various phases of (illegal) development, along with images of the CDGK plans, and satellite images of the areas.

Construction and development on the above mentioned plots is well underway, and in some cases very close to completion. The amenity plots which are huge public spaces have been covered into private residencies with newly built houses, and all the space has been sold to buyers illegally. The above developments are clearly not necessary, since they do not cater to those desperately in need of a roof above their heads. They are nothing but money making schemes contracted by corrupt developers. It is shameful that the amenity spaces of Nazimabad, the best planned area of Karachi city in terms of park and open space

are being encroached upon with such impunity. It is high time the government stopped behaving like spectators to all the corruption in this city, and stepped in and exerted their authority where it needs to be exerted – against these illegal activities. The scale of the above mentioned activities makes one wonder where illegal contractors stop and regulations officers begin; because clearly none or little action is being taken to stop this blatant, physically obvious violation of the law. These spaces have always been park spaces and are designed and located strategically for this purpose. After all this work and planning has gone behind them it would be a shame to lose them at this point. The government should do something to halt the above projects immediately and restore them as parks and open spaces and take the developers involved to task since official plans of the city clearly identify all the above mentioned spaces as amenity plots.

Topics: Blog Updates | 2 Comments »

Citizen’s Help Desk

By SHEHRI CBE | February 12, 2008

The Help Desk works to assist in the redressal of complaints from citizens on issues, related to:

Illegal / unauthorized encroachments in residential premises, misuse of residential plots for commercial purposes, misuse of amenity plots, traffic parking, roads, water supply, electricity services, sewerage, solid waste management, illegal tree cutting etc.

More information about Citizen’s Help Desk

Download the Complaint form

Topics: Blog Updates | 2 Comments »

COMMUNITY POLICING

By SHEHRI CBE | January 18, 2008

BUILDING TRUST AND COOPERATION

Shehri in collaboration with Ferozabad Police Station, Jamshed Town and the local residents initiated a ‘Community Policing’ project that aims to build trust between the community and the institution of local police through joint projects and training programs.

More information about Community Policing

Topics: Blog Updates | 2 Comments »

Gutter Baghicha

By admin | June 7, 2007

Gutter Baghicha forms the lungs of old karachi, the largest continuous open green space in this city of 13 million people. Located in SITE Town along the Manghopir Road, the most densely populated part of Karachi, Gutter Baghicha is a public amenity space, and it is used to be bigger – 1017 acres of greenery in the pre-independence Trans-Lyari area.

More information about Gutter Bagicha here.

Topics: Press, Projects, Reports | 5 Comments »

Turtle Conservation

By admin | June 7, 2007

HELPING THE TURTLES SURVIVE, is a project of Shehri-CBE, Funded by the Global Environment Facility Programme (GEF) – Small Grants Programme, under the auspices of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Pakistan.

Clifton Beach: Present & Future

By admin | June 7, 2007

Clifton Beach: Present and Future
UCR Presentation

{ Download PDF Document Here } { Download FoxIt PDF Reader }

Topics: Press, Reports | 1 Comment »

Lyari Express

By admin | June 7, 2007

Can Lyari Expressway Resolve Urban Transportation Problems?

Dr. NomanAhmed
Professor and Chairman
Department of Architecture and Planning
NED University of Engineering and Technology