RAWALPINDI: The performance of 10 divisions of the Punjab police, each headed by a regional police officer (RPO) between January and November this year was reviewed by the additional inspector general of Police Operation Punjab in a top level meeting in which the overall performance of the Rawalpindi police was declared to be “poor”.

According to sources, the recovery of robbed goods in Rawalpindi was 19pc and the recovery of stolen motorcycles and vehicles was ‘poor’ and ‘disappointing’ this year.

The RPO of the Rawalpindi Division was directed to focus on the registration of cases under new laws which were promulgated to curb terrorism after the performance of the police in light of the Vulnerable Establishments Ordinance 2015 was declared to be poor. Action against proclaimed offenders, repeat offenders and active criminals and suspects was also said to be poor in Rawalpindi and Chakwal.

Police in the Faisalabad division have only arrested 163 of 493 proclaimed offenders but their performance regarding street crimes was declared satisfactory.

The Bahawalpur police have performed poorly in recovering robbed goods and vehicles and in registering cases under the Security of Vulnerable Establishments Ordinance, 2015 with no cases being registered in Rahim Yar Khan.

All cases regarding robbery and murder were laying pending with the D.G Khan police and the DPOs of D.G Khan and Rajanpur were asked to explain their position regarding street crimes and to concentrate on arresting proclaimed offenders.

No cases were registered under the vulnerable establishments act in D.G Khan and Rajanpur and only one case was registered in Layyah.

The police in Gujranwala have performed poorly regarding murders during robberies, the Sialkot police’s performance regarding the recovery of stolen goods was poor and the recovery of stolen vehicles was unsatisfactory in Sialkot, Gujrat and Norawal.

The Lahore police only submitted charge sheets for five robbery cases out of nine and the recovery of stolen goods was at 16pc.

The Multan police have only recovered 15pc of stolen goods and have performed satisfactorily in recovering robbed items though did not arrest enough proclaimed offenders.

The Sahiwal police had performed well in street crime and poorly regarding registering cases under the vulnerable establishments act.

The Sargodha police have only arrested 15 of 137 proclaimed offenders and the Sheikhupura police have performed poorly in arresting proclaimed offenders.

DPOs were warned of departmental action if they did not improve performance.

Published in Dawn December 21st, 2016