July 20, 2006	Thursday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 23, 1427

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GUJRAT, July 19: The Punjab police have failed to furnish the Interpol (international police) with the foreign addresses of all those proclaimed offenders and court absconders who had escaped abroad.

Information gleaned by Dawn revealed that the Punjab government had involved Interpol with the help of foreign office in January 2005 to arrest and extradite to Pakistan all those POs and court absconders who had taken refuge in foreign countries. The government had to take such a step when the Supreme Court showed interest in the arrest of fugitives.

Earlier, the police had launched a province-wide campaign for the arrest of POs and CAs from Nov 18 to Dec 31 in 2004. The then Gujranwala range DIG, Altaf Qamar, had fixed 50 per cent target for the arrest of POs and CAs and said the police performance would be examined only by the number of arrested POs.

However, the police of four districts — Gujrat, Gujranwala, Sialkot and Narowal — could not achieve the target during the 45-day campaign.

It is pertinent to mention that the golden industrial triangle of Gujrat, Gujranwala and Sialkot has the highest crime rate in Punjab. These districts fall in a range that has the maximum number of POs and CAs.

The official record made available at that time revealed that the number of POs (of both A and B categories) in the range was 8,731 and that of court absconders 7,099. Only the police of Mandi Bahauddin and Hafizabad districts proved equal to the task.

The Mandi Bahauddin police remained on top throughout the range by achieving 54 per cent target for the arrest of POs and 57 per cent for the arrest of court absconders. They arrested 146 POs out of 269 and 128 court absconders out of 223. The Hafizabad police ranked next to it by arresting 51 per cent of the POs. As for the CAs, it could achieve only 21 per cent target.

The Narowal police could meet only 38 per cent of the target for the arrest of POs and 14 per cent for the arrest of CAs. They arrested 325 POs out of 849 and 140 CAs out of 970. The Sialkot police could arrest 887 POs out of 2,854 (31 per cent target) and 142 CAs out of 2,292 (only six per cent).

The statistics of the Gujranwala police was not better either as they could arrest only 651 POs out of 2,382 (27 per cent) and 218 CAs out of 1,373 (16 per cent). At the bottom of the list was the Gujrat police which could achieve only 24 per cent of the target for the arrest of POs and 17 per cent for the arrest of CAs. They arrested 453 POs out of 1,869 and 378 CAs out of 2,179.

The Supreme Court had directed the Punjab government in December 2004 to submit a report about the number of POs and CAs who were at large. The then additional advocate-general, Muhammad Akbar Tarrar on behalf of the Punjab IGP had informed an A-division bench of the Supreme Court on Dec 31, 2004 that over 51,000 criminals had been declared POs by the police. They include 22,715 court absconders.

The Punjab police listed the Gujranwala Range on the top with 8,006 POs and 6,603 CAs. The Faisalabad Range had 3,169 POs and 5,017 CAs and the Multan Range (3,394 POs and 3,937 CAs). The number of POs in the Lahore Range was 2,961 and that of court absconders 1,234.

The next on the table was the Bahawalpur Range with 1,046 POs and 921 CAs, Dera Ghazi Khan Range (1,025 POs and 867 CAs) and Sargodha Range (764 POs and 473 CAs).

A division bench of the Supreme Court, after reviewing the police report, had directed the IGP to assign special teams for the arrest of fugitives. The bench, comprising Justice Khalilur Rahman Ramday and Justice Falaksher, had observed that society stood exposed to a potential danger in the wake of a large number of criminals at large.

The Punjab police had submitted another report to the Supreme Court on Jan 16, 2005, giving fresh details about the POs and CAs and citing reasons for the high crime rate in the province. The report revealed that Gujrat was on top of the list while Sialkot and Gujranwala followed it.

The then assistant advocate-general, Raja Abdur Rahman had submitted before a three-member bench of the apex court on April 21 that the Punjab government had in January issued Red Corner Notices (international warrants for arrest) against such fugitives. These were sent to the interior ministry for onward transmission to the foreign office and involvement of Interpol.

Sources said Interpol had asked the foreign office to provide it with the foreign addresses which were necessary to extradite such criminals. A careful view of lists of POs and CAs revealed that the section of details stated that the fugitive had escaped abroad. Instead of stating the foreign address, this section even did not show to which country the fugitive had escaped. All the lists prepared by the police of 34 districts (at that time) showed a similar story.

Sources said it was the duty of detective foot constables (DFCs) and investigators to trace their foreign addresses but they were not performing their duties honestly. The fact was that such fugitives also visited the country but the relevant authorities failed to arrest them.

Sources alleged that the DFCs collected monthly amounts from the families of fugitives and made no effort to trace their foreign addresses. Around 25 per cent fugitives in the province had escaped abroad.

FRESH CAMPAIGN: Under Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi’s directive, all 34 DPOs had launched campaign for the arrest of fugitives during the last one year. But this, too, had not worked.

Gujranwala Range DIG Malik Muhammad Iqbal told Dawn on telephone that he had recently taken the charge and would direct the subordinates to trace the foreign addresses of POs and CAs. He said he had already asked the officials to arrest the nominated accused in any FIR in time.

The police had launched a rigorous campaign against POs during his previous posting as DIG, he said, and several POs were either shot dead in encounters or they were arrested.