LAHORE: Lahorites, especially complainants, have appeared to be the worst affectees of police engagements in political scenario in the country and post-June 17 Model Town carnage as frequent shuffles in Lahore police and unavailability of subordinate officers have almost paralysed the department’s working.
The appointment of new city police chief on August 18 once again shook the police as eight additional SPs were transferred on late Saturday following multiple shuffles between June 17 and August 4.
The extra duties following the current political turmoil have shifted the focus of the operations wing from public dealing while the investigation wing has been also reduced its working and even those in charge of investigation at all police stations are not available to complainants.
The frequent changes at level of divisional SPs of both operations and investigation wing because of possible government action against responsible officers of Model Town incident have also adversely affected the supervisory role of the officers regarding their subordinates.
On Saturday, police high-ups removed three additional SPs (Dr Farrukh Raza, Maroof Safdar Wahla, and Syed Abdul Rahim Sherazi), who faced the inquiry of the judicial tribunal and investigation of the joint investigation team (JIT) in connection with the casualties of Model Town incident, and posted them outside Lahore as a ‘punishment’.
However, on the other hand, the SPs like Muhammad Nadeem, who was Model Town SP Investigation at the time of Model Town killings, has been posted Lahore Cantonment SP (Operations).
The non-seriousness of police authorities can be well judged by the fact that some police divisions have witnessed repeated change of command. The worst among them is Model Town division where Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) and police clash took place.
After the departure of SP Tariq Aziz in connection with the PAT-police clash, three SPs have so far been appointed by the IGP and the last appointment was made on Saturday last when Muhammad Baqir replaced SP Zahid Nawaz Marwat as SP Operations.
Similarly, in Sadar police division, the authorities posted third SP Operations in less than four weeks or so, followed by Cantonment police division which has got two SPs in the last two weeks or so. Similarly, the most important post of SP Security has also witnessed two quick changes after the transfer of SP Salman Ali Khan who was shown the door in connection with the Model Town inquiry in July.
Besides shuffles, in all political shows in Lahore, all officers and officials from wings of operations, investigation, traffic, security division and VVIP security remained engaged in law and order duty in the last one month or so.
A source in the capital city police told Dawn that at least 50 reserves (1,000 cops), led three DSPs and four inspectors and 25 police buses from Lahore district were already at the disposal of Islamabad police to deal with the PTI and PAT gatherings. He said because PML-N leadership was not taking interest in routine matters, Lahore police was also seen exploiting the situation.
A divisional SP says it is not priority nowadays to listen to the complainants and fight crime as prolonged political crisis has forced police officers to spend most of the time by watching, listening and discussing Islamabad sits-ins and the related gatherings in Lahore rather doing routine policing work. He is of the view repeated administrative changes in the backdrop of political disorder have also shifted police focus from crime fighting and detecting cases to adopting a wait-and-see policy.
Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2014