ISLAMABAD, Sept 18: The capital territory police could arrest only 22 proclaimed offenders (POs) out of a total of 908 during a special campaign launched in August 2003.

This was told by Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat to the Senate while replying to a question of Senator Ilyas Ahmad Bilour here on Thursday.

Mr Hayat said out of 908 proclaimed offenders, 71 were wanted by the Aabpara police out of which only two had been arrested in August 2003. He said as many as 115 offenders were wanted by the Kohsar police out of which only three could be arrested in the same period, 230 offenders were wanted by the Margalla police out of which only three could be arrested, 117 were wanted by the Industrial Area police out of which only one could be arrested, 47 offenders were wanted by the Tarnol police, but none of them could be arrested.

Similarly, 114 offenders were wanted by the Golra police but only two of them could be arrested, 97 were wanted by the Secretariat police out of which only three could be arrested, 32 were wanted by the Bharakahu police out of which only four could be arrested, 80 were wanted by the Sihala police out of which only one could be arrested who later on died, while only five offenders were wanted by the Women police station out of which three could be arrested.

Replying to another question, the minister said as many as 8,375 passports had been stolen from the government offices since January 1, 2002. The government had failed to arrest even a single culprit involved in the crime. However, all these passports had been cancelled while circulars had been issued to all Pakistan missions abroad, the passport issuing authority at home and the immigration check posts about the stolen passports and their cancellation, the minister said.

The minister said the information about stolen/robbed passports had also been conveyed to immigration authorities at all the national airports. He said cases had also been registered with the local police, while Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and Intelligence Bureau (IB) had also been associated to get hold of the real culprits.