Vehicle gets stolen from Civil Secretariat right under police’s nose

The negligence of the Police Department has laid bare the security of the Punjab Civil Secretariat as a government vehicle was stolen from the premises of the seat of the provincial government, Pakistan Today learned on Monday.
According to the first information report (FIR) registered at Islampura Police Station, a Suzuki Bolan owned by the Services and General Administration Department (S&GAD) was stolen from the premises of the civil secretariat under the nose of police officials deployed at all entrances and exits.
Head Constable M Shafiq and Constable Muhammad Nawaz were on duty at the gate. They stopped an S&GAD bus at and interrogated its driver totally ignoring the Bolan driver who left right after the bus around 5.15am. An official said the secretariat security deputy superintendent of police wrote to the superintendent of police that the incident took place because of police negligence; however the slackness pointed towards chances of police involvement.
The incident has put a question mark on the security of the civil secretariat. A senior official seeking anonymity termed the incident “strange and scary” at the same time. “Robbers getting away with a government vehicle from within the civil secretariat means a lot. It should be a clarion call for the police high ups because it can lead to other more grave incidents as well. There are so many police officials in the secretariat but the security is clearly not effective,” the official added.
Another official privy to the development said this was not the first incident of its kind. “So many people send their complaints regarding motorbike and bicycle theft and the S&GAD only directs the Islampura station house officer to lodge an FIR and recover the vehicle but to no avail. Not even a single vehicle has been recovered by police so far and the applications are only piling up in files,” the official said, adding that the administration was still awaiting response from the Police Department which had again turned a blind eye to the incident.