Complacency and micromanaging
The Punjab government’s failure to curb rising crime rate in the province has resulted in a lower court issuing arrest warrants of 500 police officials for not complying with the orders of the Supreme Court pertaining to the production of prosecution witnesses and case records.
The action was taken a day after a two-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry took a serious notice of the abysmal performance of the Punjab police and the prosecution department. IGP Haji Habibur Rehman was snubbed by the court when he tried to convince it that he had assumed the charge only three days ago and had already issued show-cause notices to the delinquent police officials.
There is no doubt that there has been no proper check on the subordinate judiciary to clear a huge backlog of cases pending before various courts all over the province. But delay in submission of case records, challans as well as prosecution witnesses in the courts is mainly caused by widespread corruption in the police department at the lower level.
Apart from other factors, one of the reasons for the deteriorating law and order situation in the country’s largest province is complacency of the police force. During the last three years, the crime rate in the Punjab has risen by 21 percent with the crime wave having swept across the provincial capital. There are news reports indicating that there has been a phenomenal rise in the incidents of kidnapping for ransom in Lahore over the past few months.
Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif, who doesn’t tire of claiming credit for having changed the decadent thana culture, needs to put in place an effective system to contain the rising crime rate in the province. This can be done if he stops micromanaging the things and fully empowers the top police administration to appoint officers on the basis of their professional competence rather than their loyalty to the ruling political leadership.
The same situtation is also here (Indian punjab). The negligent police personnel, their senior police officials, those provide shelter to them. The recent controvery between two DGPs of Punjab including Sashi Kant and Anil Kaushik over the drug smuggling in jails across Punjab (India) has exposed it. The High court and apex court of India should also take the matter in their hands.
True. I have noticed a case in District Khanewal. After Robery at a home, local SHO of Thana Sadar Mian Channu, Iqbal Shah facilitated the criminals to a safe exit by engaging the local people. Instead of chasing doicates, harrased the victims.
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