Face Of Women Empowerment In Pakistan: Lady Police Officer Solves 200 Sexual Abuse Cases In 2 Months

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Pakpattan district police department in Multan, Pakistan, recently took a revolutionary step towards women empowerment when Kulsoom Fatima was appointed as a station house officer (SHO). It was the first time any female police official was accorded this responsibility of SHO in Pakpattan district.
Now, this newly appointed braveheart is making headlines for her ground-breaking performance.

Within the small time span of two months, she has created record by solving 200 rape cases. "Appointing female officers will help in ensuring speedy justice and eliminating crime," said Pakpattan District Police Officer Ibadat Nisar to The Express Tribune earlier, explaining that the ratio of crimes involving women is higher in Pakpattan compared to other districts in South Punjab. Hence, the decision was made to incorporate female officials for better results in interrogation and investigation.

In an interview to BBC, Fatima told that she would feel infuriated about the sexual abuse of minor girls. She always hoped to do something about it and being appointed as SHO gave her the chance, "I got the opportunity. I was appointed as a sub-inspector in Punjab Police after passing the competitive exams," she mentions. Fatima was serving as an SI at Saddar police station before she was handed the job of SHO at Model police station Daloryam.

"There are widespread misconceptions that female officers are not promoted and ranks higher than ASI and SI are dominated by men," Fatima said at the time of joining. However, by appointing her, Pakpattan DPO had taken an unprecedented move towards encouraging female officials to come forward.

The locals were sceptical about her abilities to deal with grave issues like sexual abuse in an underdeveloped district like Pakpattan. Nevertheless, her remarkable performance has changed the way everyone used to think about the potential of female police officers.