Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) has warned that the citizens would demand Pak-Army’s help if the Punjab government kept on failing to protect the life and property of the people.
Punjab PML-Q General Secretary Chaudhary Zaheer-ud-Din made this warning while issuing white paper on provincial government’s maintenance of law and order on Monday. Coining a new term to portray the picture of the province, he claimed that “Punjab has been made hostage by the robbers and dengue virus”. PML-Q white paper claimed that a total of 33,000 crimes of kidnapping for ransom took place in Punjab from 2009 to till to date.
It further claimed that 13,500 crimes of robbery and street crime were taking place in Punjab daily, while the crime rate was increasing in three major districts of the province including Lahore, Faisalabad and Gujranwala. It maintained that 3,600 crimes of robbery and street crime occurred in Lahore starting from month of June till August 31, while the dacoits had deprived the Lahorites of Rs 370 million, 190 million and 220 million in the month of June, July and August respectively.
It asserted that crimes against women were increasing in the province, while 6,995 crimes committed in 2009 against the women, while a total of 3055 crimes committed against women from January 2011 to August 2011. Zaheer claimed that Punjab government has directed the station house officers to follow “go slow policy” in a bid to register minimum number of cases. He said that PML-Q would take up the issue of law and order in the upcoming session of the Punjab Assembly and hoped that chief minister would take part in the debate. PML-Q leader also said that it had submitted several adjournment motions and called attention notices relating to the law and order in Punjab Assembly. Meanwhile, Chaudhary Zaheer, who is also Public Accounts Committee (PAC-1) chairman, chaired a meeting of the committee, which discussed audit paras of Labour and Human Resource Department. The committee while expressing serious concern over the department’s preparedness to answer their queries, directed authorities concerned to reappear before the PAC-1 in one month with complete preparations.