RAWALPINDI: Police campaign against proclaimed offenders (POs) has failed as their number across Punjab is increasing each day.

According to sources, the deputy inspector general of police crimes wing has directed the police across the province to strengthen their campaign against POs.

The Punjab police, including Rawalpindi district police, had launched the campaign in March.

“The performance of districts was also found nil as they were unable to arrest the proclaimed offenders of category A,” a police report said.

The category ‘A’ proclaimed offenders are those who are involved in terrorism, anti-state activities, murders, robbery with murder and kidnapping for ransom.

According to police report of June 4 and June 5, out of 36 districts of Punjab, only six districts could show their performance regarding arresting the proclaimed offenders as the performance of 30 districts was nil.

Likewise, the police performance for June 6 and June 7 was also discouraging as 36 districts were examined but the performance of 29 districts was found nil. The poor performance of police has been worrisome as the crime rate – especially in Rawalpindi district has increased since the start of Ramazan.

It said the police arrested 1,214 proclaimed offenders in March but it dropped to 1,187 in April and to 454 in May.

However, the police performance during ongoing month seems to be discouraging as most of the police officers have been waiting for their reshuffles due to upcoming general elections, therefore, they are not paying much attention to this serious issue.

A senior police official said that as the Eidut Fitr or Eidul Azha approached, the proclaimed offenders return to their homes to celebrate Eid with their families. This is the right time to arrest POs, he said.

He said the arrests of proclaimed offenders and court absconders had always been top on the agenda of top level crime meetings but the situation according to police reports had been unsatisfactory and in majority of the districts, it is zero.

He said the campaign against proclaimed offenders could not produce positive results, unless the appointments of SHOs are not made on merit and all those political appointees should be removed.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2018