LAHORE, Jan 19: Police pickets, aimed at crime control at the cost of public comfort, have become a permanent feature of the city.

The police and the city government have been claiming that the pickets would only be set up on a temporary basis as and when required. The senior police command says the pickets are set up on alternate days and in different places. They say cars or motorcycles of a specific make are checked on a picket in a day. Police are bound not to stop any other type of vehicles.

City police chief Khwaja Khalid Farooq claimed that pickets, meant to prevent crime, were set up for a specific time and had no permanent basis. The day-time pickets, he said, were necessary only if some sensational crime occurred.

“The new police order has prescribed strict punishments for police misconduct in public dealing,” he said, inviting complaints in this regard. Mr Khwaja believed that if people cooperated with the policemen at these pickets, there would definitely be no problem for them. “The trouble starts when people argue with the policemen as to why they should offer themselves for a search.”

However, complaints of misbehaviour, maltreatment, corruption and unjustified checking of motorists, motorcyclists and even pedestrians have become routine at these pickets.

Shoaib Ahmad, who has to travel daily after ending his duty between 1am and 2am, told this reporter it had become an uphill task for him to reach home.

Last night, he was travelling in a rickshaw when policemen stopped him on The Mall, he said and added, one of the cops adopted a harsh attitude when he dared inquire as to why had he been stopped. The policeman also tried to sniff his mouth.

Mr Shoaib said one of the policemen was quick to grab his arm as soon as he got down. “I objected when the policeman started searching my body,” he said. He told the policemen that senior police officers had been announcing that there would be no body search until someone acted suspicious. “I am the officer right now,” one of the policemen replied.

He again lodged a protest when the policemen tried to open his handbag. He asked them to check it with a metal-detector and respect his privacy. “You talk too much,” a policeman snubbed him and snatched his bag. He checked it and threw it in the rickshaw, Shoaib said, claiming that one of the policemen pushed him roughly.

Most of the pickets are set up on link roads and even in streets despite the complaints and reservations of the residents of these areas, who allege that the exercise disrupts their normal life.

What is new is the setting up of pickets in daytime, especially from 6am to 11am, when people leave for their workplaces and drop children to schools.

“It really is a nightmare to be checked at least six times on my way to drop my son at his school,” said Nauman Ali, who travels from Allama Iqbal Town to Garhi Shahu daily. “Most of the policemen at these pickets now recognise me but they stop me nonetheless,” he added.

The way the policemen deal with people at the pickets is not, in any case, civilised or in accordance with the law, Shabbir Ahmad of Ichhra said. “Agony and ordeal are no words to explain what happened to me the other day,” he said, claiming the policemen at a picket close to the Home Economics College in Gulberg searched his car for over half an hour despite the fact that he was accompanied by his family, including women and children.

Permanent police pickets have been set up at several points on Ferozpur Road, Gulberg’s Main Boulevard, Jail Road, Abid Market, Queens Road, Canal View, Thokhar Niaz Baig, Punjab University Campus, Lakshmi Chowk, Circular Road, Mughalpura, Baghbanpura and various other places in the city.

Document-checking is not a problem, Fida Sheikh of Islampura said, adding that the situation became awkward when one was asked to explain one’s relationship with an accompanying woman. Smelling mouth and questions as to where one is coming from or going to can not be justified under any circumstances, he remarked.

The police, on the other hand, believe that there is no other way except for setting up pickets to keep a check on crime. It works as a deterrent to crimes against property, a senior officer of the Punjab police claimed.

Several forums, including some lawyers’ bodies and other organizations, have raised objections to pickets in view of the public inconvenience they entail but to no avail.

Beside the pickets, police patrols, too, are found busy checking vehicles and searching pedestrians, which is not their job.