The Living Scripts | Zafar Ali Qureshi (Former IG Police)

The fifteenth session of IPS’ series of program ‘The
Living Scripts’ was held with Zafar Ali Qureshi, former Inspector General,
Police, on September 25, 2020.

Narrating his life story, Qureshi told the audience that
he was born in Wazirabad in the Qazi family which served as judges since the
Mughal rule. He completed his MA in history from the Government College,
Lahore, soon after which he started working as a lecturer in the same. After
teaching for some time, he attempted CSS examination in 1962, succeeding which
he was appointed as a police officer and was sent for training to Sarda, East
Pakistan (now Bangladesh), and was then posted to Peshawar for a period of one
year.

Shedding light on his stay in East Pakistan, he opined he
didn’t observe much commonalities between the people of both sides but still
their connection was firm because of the faith and ideology that saw them fight
for their freedom. The fall of Dhaka, he viewed, was a result of a series of
mismanaged issues that were mishandled from the very beginning.

The speaker later also shared many interesting stories
from his personal and professional life.

Responding to questions over the need for police
reforms, Qureshi said that Pakistan police was very much capable of doing a
much better job, but it was political interference, lack of coordination, lack
of facilities and mismanagement that was hindering its progress sorely. He
viewed that while bringing improvements and reforms in police was a need of the
hour, it should be ensured beforehand that any such measures are taken while
keeping any political interferences and other vested interests at bay.