RAWALPINDI: Inspector General of Police, Punjab, Arif Nawaz Khan has recently admitted that district police officers (DPOs) in the province have been ignoring his directives to bring improvements at the police station level and as such police stations are turning into breeding grounds of ills.

Showing his concern in this regard, the Punjab police chief said that field formations had not been focusing on the police stations, which were a basic functional unit of policing.

Non-compliance of repeated directives of the police chief by DPOs, especially focusing on the police stations, rise in property crimes in Rawalpindi division and low recovery rate, has been frustrating efforts for improvement of policing.

Notes that incidents of crime against property are increasing

IGP Arif Nawaz expressed his concerns while chairing a high-level meeting which was attended by the regional police officers, including Rawalpindi RPO Ehsan Tufail, and Additional Inspector General of Police Special Branch, Counter Terrorism Department, and city police officers (CPOs).

“District police officers and SDPOs have lost sight of police stations that is resulting in incidents like mysterious death of a suspect in police lock-up in the absence of CCTV DVR backup, which is causing problems for the police to justify the death,” the IGP told the meeting.

A similar incident of an alleged attempt of killing himself by a suspect has also occurred in the lock-up of Civil Lines police station, Rawalpindi, but due to absence of CCTV cameras the police could not ascertain the real circumstances in which the suspect got himself injured.

Like other divisional police chiefs, RPO Ehsan Tufail briefed the IGP on crime situation in Rawalpindi. He said that there was a rise in crime against property and recovery of stolen properties was also low, adding the main challenge for the police was motorcycle snatching and lifting.

In response to the bleak picture of crime situation presented by the RPO, the IGP directed him to pay special attention to the cases against property and arrest of proclaimed offenders wanted in connection with heinous crimes.

He asked him to make all the five riverine police posts operational in all respects and check the motorcycle lifting and snatching incidents. Both human and material resources dedicated to the riverine police have been missing and are being utilized somewhere else. The police chief took serious notice of misuse of human resources allocated to the riverine posts and sought a report in this regard.

The Bahawalpur RPO was directed to bring down the huge number of accused at large in crime against property cases. The RPO DG Khan was asked to improve the recovery of stolen or looted goods, especially in cases involving more than one million rupees.

In view of alarming increase in crime against property cases in Lahore despite free registration of cases, the CCPO was asked to make an effective prevention plan .About rising incidents of rape, the IGP directed him to analyse the cases and submit the findings.

The Faisalabad RPO was directed to arrest the accused who were at large in heinous crimes. He said that the number of POs, which currently stood at 17,000, must be brought down.

On behalf of Gujranwala RPO, the relevant CPO briefed the police chief, saying that murder cases had been decreased and recovery of case properties had also shown improvement.

The Multan RPO said that crimes against property had increased and also shared his initiatives to tackle the situation. The Sahiwal and Sargodha RPOs informed the meeting that they had been focusing on crimes against property and arrest of proclaimed offenders.

The IGP asked Mianwali RPO o give average tenure to SHOs so that they could show performance.

A police spokesman had claimed after a meeting on Monday that the IGP had expressed his satisfaction over the performance of Rawalpindi police.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2019