LAHORE, Feb 13: A full bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday directed the Punjab police command to bring street crime under control.

The direction came after an official report submitted to the court by Punjab IGP Ahmad Naseem mentioned a 21 per cent increase in street crime in the city in 2006 as compared to 2005.

Hearing the murder cases of additional advocate-general Arif Bhindar and advocate Niaz Sindhu, the bench had taken up the issues of the Police Order violations in the postings of officers and the law and order situation.

During the last hearing on Feb 9, the court had given the Punjab government three days to make the police postings in accordance with the police order.

Comprising Justice Muzammal Khan, Justice M Bilal Khan and Justice Syed Shabbar Raza Rizvi, the bench had issued the directions after Chief Secretary Salman Saddique sought some more time to make the postings in accordance with the law.

However, the chief secretary on Tuesday submitted to the court that promotions and transfers of 15 police highups had been notified to bring the postings in accordance with the police order. He submitted that the process was under way to make appointments of all police officials according to the law.

The police report said 1,989 cases of street crime were reported in 2006 and 1,648 in 2005; 960 cases of jewellery snatching were reported in 2006 and 879 in 2005; at least 486 cases of cell phones snatching were reported in 2006 and 301 in 2005; and 367 cases of purse and cash snatching were reported in 2006 as compared to 261 in the corresponding year.

Other figures submitted to the court said the city police remained clueless about 3,847 cases last year. During the first month of the current year, 139 cases of street crime were reported.

The report revealed that the cases of vehicle theft topped the list of untraced incidents with 2,127 clueless incidents followed by 762 cases of street crime. Ten cases of murder, four of robbery-cum-murder, 26 of dacoity, 684 of robbery, 154 of vehicle snatching, 2,127 of vehicle theft and 762 of street crime remained untraced in 2006.

Last year, some 8,487 cases of heinous crimes were reported in the city. Of them, vehicle theft topped the list with 3,722 incidents. Some 442 cases of murder, 189 of clueless murders, 35 of kidnapping for ransom, 46 of dacoity-cum-murder, 104 of dacoity, 1,634 of robbery, 326 of vehicle snatching, 3,722 of vehicle theft and 1,989 of street crime were reported in the city in 2006.

The court on Jan 26 had also served a contempt of court notice on Lahore police chief Anwar Virk and investigation police chief Azam Joya for holding a press conference on the matter which the court had already taken up.

The officials on the last hearing on Feb 9 submitted their replies. After satisfaction, the court withdrew the contempt notice on Tuesday.

However, the court issued the same notice to SSP Chaudhry Shafqaat for issuing a statement to the press. The court said if the statement was true, it amounted to maligning and lowering the esteem of the court. It directed the official to submit his reply on the next hearing.

Later, when asked by the court, the Punjab IG explained different measures, including introduction of Muhafiz Force, to check street crime.

The court will resume proceedings on Feb 22.

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