LAHORE, March 19: Burdened with rising cases and faced with a lack of proper infrastructure, the investigation wing of the Lahore police is struggling hard to deliver, Dawn has learned.

The Capital City Police has not taken any measure to address the problems to the wing in line with the Police Order of 2002.

The wing was bifurcated from the watch and ward wing to expedite detection of cases, recovery of looted property, arrests of accused and timely submission of challans but it could not deliver as per expectations.

The investigation wing of Lahore police lacks proper infrastructure and has not been given Rs15 million to be transferred to the wing during the current fiscal year.

The officials of the wing have not been trained along professional lines and junior officers are posted as investigation heads.

Sources said the separation of the investigation wing from the watch and ward created conflicts between the two wings.

They said the officials of the two wings tried to fail each other.

Officials of the investigation wing complained that the major problem was the shortage of staff in wake of the rising number of cases.

“The number of the officials given to the investigation wing is one-fifth of the operation wing,” said a senior official.

“The investigation wing should have been given more staff as it is responsible for pursuing a first information report till the arrest of accused” said a capital city police source.

Rules stated that an investigation officer at a police station was bound to handle 50 cases a year but due to shortage of staff one had to handle over 100 a year, sources said.

They said two to three FIRs were being lodged in each police station every day.

Since investigation wings lack staff, they ask ward and watch officials to help them raid and arrest accused. When arrests are made, the watch and ward is quick to get the credit.

Sources said that arresting proclaimed offenders, court absconders and other accused in cases did not fall under the jurisdiction of the watch and ward wing.

They said the watch and ward wing was responsible for controlling crime through patrolling and for maintaining law and order.

Investigation officials complained about the non-transfer of money allocated for the investigation of cases.

“The capital city police office is responsible for transferring allocations to each police station but the money is transferred only in record,” said an in charge of the investigation wing seeking anonymity.