RAWALPINDI: Most of the police officials posted at the Airport Police Station, one of the most sensitive police stations in Rawalpindi district, have been spending their days and nights draining out rainwater using buckets and electric pumps from the dilapidated building of the police station, since the heavy rains lashed the city and its suburbs.

The heavy floods have claimed as many as 15 lives and caused widespread damage to public property in Rawalpindi. Besides the damages faced by the general public, the police department has also been affected by the heavy rains.

The Airport Police Station, established in the Railway’s Quarters, submerges in water whenever there is heavy rain, the police officials said.

The railway authorities have already asked the police to vacate these quarters, which the police department took over during former President Pervez Musharraf’s regime in 2003-04 and have not paid any rent since then.

According to police sources, the police department had told the railway authorities that they cannot vacate the premises until they find an alternate space.

“I have been doing my office work while sitting on a railway track, because the police station building is inundated with rainwater,” a police official said, adding, “The rainwater always enters the building and destroys important police records.”

“We have not done any policing, because our first priority is to clean the police station and preserve our records. A pungent smell is emitting from the interior of the building, because our offices are filled with rainwater,” said an assistant sub-inspector, who claimed that he spent most of this time draining out the water from his office.

He cautiously said that the senior police officials had been notified about the ordeal faced by the Airport police, but the seniors had not taken any steps to aid them.

“It is not difficult for the police department to get a better building on rent to establish a police station for one of the most sensitive areas in the city,” a police official said.

The office of the deputy superintendent of the Civil Lines police is located in the premises of the Airport Police Station, and it has also been submerged in rainwater. It is not just the Airport Police Station that suffered the damages, the roof of Chontra Police Station building also collapsed during the heavy rain. However, the police station staff and the suspects in the lock-up remained unhurt.— Mohammad Asghar

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2014