LAHORE: The efficiency of Punjab Police’s front desks, established in the police stations situated across the province, is being hampered due to massive load shedding, Pakistan Today has learnt.
Aiming to centralise and bring reform in the notorious ‘thana culture’ of police stations, last year, the Punjab government started replacing the traditional way of registering an FIR through a digital system. In March this year, the system was inaugurated by then prime minister Nawaz Sharif, after which, all the police stations in Punjab province were connected with each other through a centralised system. This was also announced that the desks would be directly monitored on a regular basis by DPOs and RPOs, while for the purpose, monitoring rooms had also been established in their offices.
These front desks are equipped with modern computers, internet connection, air conditioning and a sitting area for complainants.
This has been observed that ever since the establishment of the front desks, the number of complaints has increased, while the ratio of registered FIRs has also increased when compared to the previous years.
However, despite building such an extraordinary setup, people woes continue as most of the front desks have to stop work during load shedding, so that, when citizens come to file their complaints, they are sent back on the excuse that there is no electricity backup system.
A resident of Wapda Town Lahore, Habib Khan, said that he had to file complaint of his lost document. Talking to Pakistan Today, he said, “When I reached at the concerned police station—Qila Gujjar Singh, I was told by the front desk officials to come again as system was stopped due to unavailability of electricity.” I went again at the police station after two hours where I was informed that the system would remain shut due to power outage, he added.
A sub-inspector in the same police station told Pakistan Today that the department has provided UPS which are not sufficient to provide backup for more than one hour. “Due to lacking facilities of front desks, the pendency of cases has been increased which creates problems for the investigators,” he said, adding that the front desk staff also doesn’t bother to take up this very issue with high-ups.
A front desk official said that load shedding was a problem for them too as they had to spend more time on duty to file the complaints of the complainants present at the front desk.
The same situation can be witnessed in other police stations of Lahore, while the situation is worse at the front desks of other cities where the duration of load shedding is higher than Lahore.
Deputy Inspector General Haider Ashraf said that all the front desks had been provided with sufficient backup system in case of power outage. Talking to Pakistan Today, he said that this issue was not brought into his notice. However, he said that the issue would be resolved soon. On a question regarding the front desks timings, Haider informed that currently, front desks are operating for morning shift while staff for the second shift has been hired and is being trained after which, it will begin duty.
