| February 10, 2002 | Sunday | Ziqa’ad 26, 1422 |
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Car theft menace
FIRs at doorstep?
WITH mutual pledges by their heads of state to avoid interfering in each other’s affairs, Pakistan and Afghanistan mow seem set on a new pattern of relationship. Speaking at a joint press conference in Islamabad on Friday, President Pervez Musharraf and Chairman Hamid Karzai seemed painfully aware of the consequences of past mistakes and misunderstandings when they said they had decided not to let their territories be used against each other’s interests. They made it clear that the misunderstandings of the past had been forgotten, because the two governments had decided to bury the hatchet. Instead, the aim before them now is to build a new relationship based on sovereign equality, friendship, mutual respect and cooperation.
Two points made by the chairman of Afghanistan’s interim government are significant. First, he emphasized the fact that the Afghan people were grateful to Pakistan for the help they gave them during their struggle against Soviet occupation. He specially referred to succour and shelter Pakistan provided to millions of Afghan refugees to which he said he was witness himself. Second, he believed the success of the recent war on terrorism would not have been possible without President Musharraf’s efforts and called his speech of Jan 12 “the cornerstone” of the anti-terrorism campaign in the region. These two points, based on historical facts, go to rebut some unfortunate remarks made recently by some members of the Afghan interim government. However, as both President Musharraf and Chairman Karzai said, all this belonged to the past and they treated this as a closed chapter.
While starting on a new journey of goodwill and cooperation, the two sides must, of course, be aware of the traumatic events of the last two decades and the mistakes they both made. Without a shadow of doubt, they interfered in each other’s affairs and caused problems for each other. Some Afghan governments bore animus against Pakistan, intrigued in the tribal territory, and lent support to the Pakhtoonistan bogey. Similarly, Islamabad spread its tentacles far and wide in Afghanistan and got trapped in that country’s factional fights. While it was quite legitimate for Islamabad to want a friendly government in Kabul, it made the mistake of assuming the role of Big Brother. This damaged the goodwill that Pakistan this country earned among all sections of the Afghan people during the anti-Soviet resistance. This intrusive role in Afghanistan’s internal affairs reached new heights during the post-Soviet civil war when elements in the Pakistan army armed and controlled the Taliban. The results were disastrous not only for Afghanistan but for the whole region.
One hopes the two sides will now have the wisdom of avoiding yesterday’s pitfalls and build a healthy relationship whose outlines were given by the two leaders on Friday. A thousand links bind the two countries together. Pakistan cannot have peace if there is strife in Afghanistan. Similarly, the peace and prosperity of one will have a significant beneficial effect on the other. Pakistan has correctly decided to make a contribution of $100 million to the international fund for Afghanistan’s reconstruction, because peace and prosperity in that country are in Pakistan’s interest. They also have a common stake in combating drug trafficking and gun-running, and in checking smuggling, which causes huge financial losses to Islamabad’s exchequer. One hopes the sentiments expressed by the two leaders will find expression in their domestic and foreign policies, so that Afghanistan turns out to be a source of peace and stability rather than one of strife and instability for the entire region.
TAKING serious note of the recent rise in car thefts in Karachi, the Sindh governor has instructed the police to set up check posts on the outskirts of the city to prevent the smuggling of stolen cars to up-country destinations. A cursory look at the current year’s statistics reflects the horrid state of the law and order situation in the country’s commercial capital when it comes to vehicle-theft: nearly 20 vehicles are being stolen or hijacked at gunpoint in Karachi on a daily basis. The trend seems to be a continuation of last year’s stealing spree when a total of 9,035 vehicles were stolen, out of which the police were able to recover only 3,112. This means that nearly two-thirds of the stolen vehicles from Karachi continue to feed the lucrative second-hand car markets elsewhere in the country, which makes the racket an organized crime of sorts.
Last year, a Citizen Police Liaison Committee report put the value of stolen vehicles at over one billion rupees, which was based on the previous year’s figure of 7,500 vehicles. Thus the governor’s instructions to the police department to set up check posts around Karachi to prevent vehicle theft of this proportion seem to be too little, too late in terms of a meaningful attempt to check the menace. The need now is to take much tougher action so as to identify the real criminals behind the racket and to bring them to book. This may require running background checks and screening of the law enforcement agencies’ personnel, especially those who are specifically responsible for curbing vehicle theft. This has become necessary in view of the current dire situation, as is it is hard to believe that a multi-million rupee racket can continue to exist, and even show a disturbing level of growth, without the collaborative involvement of a section of the police and other relevant agencies and personnel. Let the governor seek the army’s assistance, if that would help root out this thriving racket.
IT is good that the inspector-general of the Sindh police realizes the problems ordinary citizens face in getting a criminal complaint registered with their local police station. That is perhaps why he has said that from now on once a complaint is received an officer of the department will visit the home of the victim and file a first information report (FIR) on behalf of the complainant. However, given the level of crime in the city and its size, one wonders whether this is a practical solution. Sending officers to people’s houses might also pose another problem in that given the force’s negative image many citizens might actually not want a police official coming to their home.
Instead of going ahead and implementing this change in the way FIRs are registered, it would be a much better idea if the police improved the existing system and adopted a more helpful and responsible attitude towards in the public. In specific terms, this means ensuring that those who go to police stations to report a crime face no hurdles in getting their complaint registered. Everyone knows that the main reason FIRs are registered with such hesitation by local police stations is because it allows them to claim that the crime rate is down. It also spares them the ‘irksome’ responsibility of going through the whole process of investigation, questioning, sifting of facts and so forth. Dispatching a police officer to the home of a complainant to register a complaint might not prove to be all that effective unless the lack of professionalism in the force, and a general reluctance to prevent and control crime is addressed. The best way to tackle crime is not to pretend that it does not exist but rather to deal with it with all available resources.