KARACHI: Inspector General of Police Dr Syed Kaleem Imam on Wednesday said instead of arresting a person on the basis of a mere complaint against him the Sindh police had been told to act only if they got incriminating evidence.

He said that only redressal mechanism under Section 22-A of the Criminal Procedure Code was being corrected/improved on the directives of the Supreme Court to end “frivolous” complaints to reduce burden on the judiciary.

The IGP had prepared recommendations on behalf of the police on the directions of the judiciary and submitted them before the apex court to address a host of issues ranging from dealing with people’s grievances to improving investigation and accountability of the police, etc.

Police told to not arrest anyone without incriminating evidence

However, when the National Judicial Policy Making Committee (NJPMC) of the SC took a decision to empower police to decide applications/complaints regarding registration of FIRs, lawyers expressed their reservations as they feared that the people would be left at the mercy of the police.

Talking to Dawn on Wednesday, IG Imam explained that the power of courts under Section 22-A was not being abolished, but the apex court wanted that all existing options should be exhausted before approaching district courts/justices of peace for lodging of FIRs.

He said that most of the complaints were being lodged to “settle personal score, exploitation, getting monetary benefit”.

Citing the data of complaints lodged in district courts in 2018 in Sindh, he pointed out that total 19,332 complaints were lodged and of them, 14,015 complaints/applications were disposed of without registration of FIRs.

Over 70 per cent complaints were disposed of on the directions of the courts and only 5,317 FIRs were registered.

Out of the 5,317 complaints, whose FIRs were registered in Sindh on the courts’ directions, two per cent were related to murders, 3pc to attempted murders, 6pc abduction, 1pc kidnapping/kidnapping for ransom, 5pc theft, 1pc rape, 1pc against police high-handedness, 6pc dacoity/robbery and 75pc were related to vehicle snatching/theft, burglary, other local and special law.

He said only 1,973 cases were approved by the courts, 141 cases were still under investigation and 3,203 cases were pending trial.

Talking about status of the 1,973 approved cases, the IGP said that 396 cases were A Class (in which suspects are untraceable), 553 were B Class (bogus) and 1,024 cases were cancelled by the courts (52pc).

“It means these complaints/cases were unnecessary burden on the judiciary, waste of time and waste of money,” he claimed.

Talking about complaints lodged by people at recently established complaint cells under the SC directions across Sindh during the last two months, the IGP pointed out that out of total 7,979 complaints received, 1,961 were disposed of by the police.

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2019