Not easy to live in these times. Excruciating inflation and damning power outages on one hand and the terrorist hits on the other have put a limit on breathing space for the people. Our security agencies are perhaps meandering between the inability and, or, incompetence as to handle the situation. What makes the whole situation more precarious is that apart from the terrorists, there are other criminal elements currently not under watch, giving them room to manoeuvre the situation to their advantage.
The provincial metropolis city of Lahore witnessed four bank robberies in a period of 10 days with a loss of millions. Criminal gangs find them to be an easy prey due to lax security measures. While security needs to be beefed up on behalf of the banks, it also makes sense that the law enforcement agencies take the lead in nipping these gangs down. Banks are legally bound to provide sufficient security in their premises, but they shouldn’t be expected to turn banks into a garrison as seemed the intent of instructions issued by the DIG Operations the other day. These robberies are not limited to banks alone. Markets and peaceful citizenry too have not been spared by this menace with burglary, breaking and entering and robberies happening on a regular routine. It would not be prudent to ask them to walk around with professionally trained guards and have bunkers outside their houses, just in case.
On the other hand, the banks must comply with all legal obligations with regards to the security requirements, like coordinating with police in maintaining and verifying background of guards, their training, medical fitness, video surveillance, and such. What police needs to do is to work out a more practical solution than ordering a shutdown of business for banks. A proper implementation of the rules already promulgated might just do the needful. Scrutiny of guards must be a precondition before their hiring while a rigorous investigation methodology can work as deterrence for these criminal gangs without any burden on the banking industry.
While the law and order situation in Punjab is definitely better than in Sind or Balochistan and KP, it is not as serene and reassuring as it should have been, if the claims of PML(N) are to taken seriously. Lawlessness is directly related to the corruption which dominates the power corridors in Islamabad including the Presidency, PM House, Interior ministry and the Defense Ministry. What can we expect from the guards who are involved in these robberies, when the elected president and his PM are behind every scam, bank loan defaults and plunder of state assets. The rot starts from the top and for things to improve the top must be scrutinized and surgically cleansed of the rot that dominates it. Please try to point the fault where it lies. After all it is the Ministry of Interior which gives a licence to these security companies that hire guards without scrutiny. The Licence is obtained on payment of bribes to circumvent the scrutiny. Time to punish those responsible for giving these licences. Perhaps we need to investigate why the police recruitment is done on recomendations or the jobs are sold out to the highest bidder. As long as corruption is not dealt with an iron hand,nothing will improve.
Comments are closed.