Elite Police Unit, for the people or elites?

Yesterday while watching a talk show, DIG Police from Lahore was on the phone and he told the host that Elite Units were established some years ago to protect and patrol sensitive areas of the city along with providing protection for the police stations. But some time back in 2002 i believe, his men were ordered to move to Islamabad and fulfill the duties of guarding Tariq Azeem (member of Musharraf Cabinet) residence. When they insisted that this is not what they had been trained for, and that Capital City had its own police force for such tasks, they were ordered to do as told otherwise Tariq Azeem would be very upset.

I bet the same is true for all other parts of the country from where the best trained are used for personal protection of the elites rather than allowing them to carry out their assigned tasks.

Do you think this is true? Has the police force been rendered useless and more akin to security of the powerful elites rather than the public they’re supposed to protect?

What can be done to improve the situation countrywide, and re-strengthen the police force and all its’ branches?

Re: Elite Police Unit, for the people or elites?

This has always been true in Pakistan (and india). Elite Force is used for diplomat protection in Islamabad as well (or was a few years back). That is probably what Tariq Azeem needed them for.

I'm pretty sure their training does not include specialized security detail tasks. I would suggest creating a specialized VIP security unit like the US Secret Service, but it would be expensive to maintain their training and numbers since every two bit VVVVVVIP would want his own team.