The Senate Standing Committee on Interior was informed Tuesday that around 27 percent of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Police were deployed to provide security to 1.8 million citizens, whereas the remaining 73 percent had been assigned the task to protect the VVIPs and carry out other duties of sensitive nature.
The committee was also told that the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was involved in the murder of slain federal minister for minorities affairs Shahbaz Bhatti.
The meeting, with Senator Talha Mehmood in the chair, was briefed on the security situation in the city. The IGP told the committee that crimes ratio in the territory increased over the years and around 104 incidents of kidnapping were reported in the first eight months of the current year against 81 cases in 2010. He added that the legal wing of the police department was extremely weak and it required professional personnel to stop the criminals exploiting the legal lacunas and go scot-free.
The committee was informed that the car used at the Silk Bank bomb blast in Sector I-8 had been recovered. The IGP said around 12 terrorists belonging to al Qaeda and the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) had been arrested from the capital since 2007.
He also briefed the senators on the postings of the SHOs, DSPs and SPs but could not give details of their tenures in their respective places.
Expressing dissatisfaction over the law and order situation and the briefing, the standing committee directed the IGP to submit a report of the SHOs, DSPs and SPs with all details pertaining to tenures of their posting.
Senator Talha said many officials had been working for a long time in their respective places of posting; therefore, they had developed ties with land mafia and were reportedly involved in getting fake FIRs registered against legal owners of land to deprive them from their properties on the behest of the mafia. He said the officials, continuing their service at the posts for a long period, were one of the reasons for worsening law and order situation in the federal capital. He directed the IGP to submit a comprehensive report in the next meeting. The committee also recommended that law regarding fake FIRs and punishments should be tabled in the parliament.
Senator Talha said the bill, being presently being considered at present by the National Assembly Standing Committee on Law and Justice, should also propose punishment for the police official involved in registration of fake FIRs.
