LAHORE: An analysis prepared and discussed in a meeting of senior police officers states that the Punjab police have reduced corruption complaints in the investigation department by 460pc after the disbursement of Rs140 million funds “in advance directly to investigation officers” as cost of investigation in the 717 police stations of the province.

The funds were disbursed from the Rs280 million fund to be paid as the cost of investigation.

“This time, we dispensed funds to the investigation police through district police officers and city police officers and found the results very encouraging to curtail corruption in police”, claims the analysis.

Inspector General of Police (IGP) Shaoib Dastagir also briefed the prime minister about the last five-month performance during his recent visit to Lahore.

Advance payment to inquiry officers works

The IGP briefed the prime minister about the 60pc reduction in complaints of non-registration of cases and arrest of 300 proclaimed offenders.

“The IGP’s initiatives of police evaluation system and reforms to address glaring problems/complaints against police department, such as corruption, non-registration of FIR, dormant against mafias, arrest of criminals of top 10 categories have yielded encouraging results in redressing public grievance,” a police official told Dawn.

A police officer, seeking anonymity, said a special emphasis has been on addressing the issues and a close watch is being kept on 8787, a toll free number, to cater to public issues.

“Complaints about the non-registration have been reduced from 60,000 to 3,400,” the officer said.

A similar trend is being observed in the complaints of corruption in the investigation process.

“Complaints have reduced to 331 from almost 1,540 after disbursement of funds to the investigation officers of all 717 police stations,” the officer claimed.

The disbursal of funds has also proved that if the proper cost of investigation is provided to the IOs, there will be marginal corruption in the delivery of justice to the aggrieved parties.

Earlier, investigation officers (IOs) were being given Rs525 per case as the cost of investigation whereas in a murder case, an IO has to bear expenses of approximately Rs50,000 while in attempted murder and rape case the expenses range between Rs20,000 and Rs30,000.

The officer claimed the Punjab police busted 311– of 336 – gambling dens across the province which was also another “record”.

Moreover, 2,837 more gamblers were arrested as compared to those reported during the same period of last year; about 300, of 373, criminals in various districts were arrested. Up to 240 gangs involved in murder and robbery were smashed.

“This shows almost 20pc more arrests were made during the last five months as compared to that reported in the same period of last year,” he said.

Similarly, more than 150 incidents of police challenging the criminals in the robberies were reported in the first five months of this year in Punjab as compared to 48 in 2019.

This was the result of the massive patrolling of the police on roads to check street crime, the official said.

“While 525pc more criminals either died or were arrested in the current year by the police,” he said, adding more than 20 hardened criminals were either apprehended or eliminated during the course of action.

“Also, all cases of kidnap for ransom were also disposed of,” the officer said.

Moreover, 100 wanted criminals involved in multiple murders, kidnap for ransom, extortion and multiple dacoities were also booked/arrested in the last five months, the report stated.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2020