ISLAMABAD: The Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan and the National Police Bureau (NPB) have agreed to enhance ties between police organizations and higher education institutions to encourage academia to play a proactive role in formulating reforms through relevant research.

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A Letter of Intent (LoI) was signed on Tuesday by Dr. Shaista Sohail, Executive Director HEC and Dr. Syed Ejaz Hussain, Director General NPB, Ministry of Interior, Islamabad.

Police reforms and involvement of academia for informed policy decisions has emerged as a top priority in the Government’s commitment for strengthening police institutions.

HEC and NPB intend to facilitate collaboration in research projects between researchers and the law enforcement agencies associated with NPB, so as to harness the research potential of academic institutions as well as to solve real world problems through carefully designed and properly implemented research activities.

Under this collaboration, inter alia, universities will be encouraged to approach NPB for joint workshops, seminars, focused group discussions, competitions, and involvement of student volunteers for community work.

HEC Spokespersons said, ”HEC will incorporate the contents related to public safety, frequently applied police laws, criminal procedure and fundamental constitutional rights in one of the mandatory General Education courses that HEC is developing for undergraduate students.”

Similarly, NPB will offer unpaid internships to students, whenever and wherever possible. It will also provide access to crime data regarding research to MPhil and PhD scholars, subject to necessary protections with respect to privacy and confidentiality.