Law and order in the Punjab is not ideal, but it has improved over the last year or so, said Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan during a general discussion on law and order in the Provincial Assembly (PA).
Opposition members were continuing their assembly boycott when the session resumed at around 11.50am on Wednesday, but they later returned to the house to participate in the discussion.
The PTI, the main opposition party, lauded various proposals made by PML-N MPA Chaudhry Muhammad Iqbal for improved security and policing and asked the speaker to consider his recommendations as their own.
Earlier, the minister briefed the assembly on this year’s crime statistics. He said that there had been 18 incidents of sectarian violence this year in which 32 people had died and 18 been injured. Police had solved seven of the cases, he said.
Sanaullah said that a total of 112 cases of kidnapping for ransom had been registered so far in 2013, compared to 134 cases last year. Ninety hostages were successfully recovered. He described land grabbing as “the root of all crime” and said that 261 such cases had been registered in 2013 and 717 people arrested.
About corruption within the police, he said that senior posts like regional police officers and district police officers had been filled on merit by largely honest and dedicated officials. But corruption was still a problem at the police station level, he said, as it was at the lower levels in other departments like taxation and revenue.
The government planned to recruit 600 sub inspectors through the Punjab Public Service Commission to solve this problem, he said. These SIs would be given modern training and they would then take charge of all the police stations in the Punjab. But their recruitment and training would take time, he said. In the interim, the Punjab Police inspector general had selected 1,500 SIs, from among the total force of 8,000 SIs and inspectors, who would be trained briefly and then put in charge of police stations, the minister said.
Sanaullah said that the police knew of only one investigation tool – torture. Improper investigations made prosecutions ineffective, he said. To address the problem, the government had set up a modern forensics laboratory, the largest in Asia and second largest in the world, he said. The Punjab Forensic Science Agency was supporting investigations not just in the province, but in the whole country, he said. The agency would be expanded to the district and tehsil levels, he added. The government would also set up CCTV cameras all over Lahore to monitor security instead of using police pickets.
About terrorism, the minister said that dismantling local networks which helped terrorists carry out attacks and identified potential targets was an important task for the Punjab Police and it had largely succeeded in doing so. He said that the police did not disclose its successes in this regard, but almost all the large networks in the Punjab had bee destroyed.
In 2013, he said, the police had dismantled 1,840 criminal gangs and arrested 6,218 people in this regard. Some Rs1.61 billion worth of stolen property had been recovered from the gangs.
Opposition Leader Mian Mehmoodur Rashid did not speak in response, but senior PTI members including Sibtain Khan endorsed treasury MPA Chaudhry Muhammad Iqbal’s recommendations on how to improve law and order.
Muhammad Iqbal
Iqbal said that limiting the availability of weapons and reducing the number of guns on the street were key to reducing crime. Ordinary citizens and even the police were concerned about facing criminals carrying sophisticated weapons, he said. It was far too easy for criminals to threaten and intimidate witnesses and judges.
He said the government should buy guns from weapons factories located in the tribal areas and provide them to law enforcement personnel. The Punjab government should offer to pay people reasonable prices for handing in sophisticated weapons to the police.
The easy availability of mobile phone SIM cards also helped criminals, he said. Even jail staff and convicts had bags full of SIM cards. The government should limit the number of SIM cards that can be issued in one person’s name, he said.
Iqbal said that the police should be allowed to tap phones, which was currently the sole prerogative of intelligence agencies. The Punjab Police should be able to tap a phone upon receiving permission from a sessions judge, he said.
The MPA said that each SHO should have a minimum tenure of two years at a police station. On average, he said, SHOs were in their posts for just three months. Senior officers should also be given tenure security, he added.
He suggested that crimes be categorised in three sections according to severity in order to help the police prioritise. Minor offences would be required to be investigated and challaned within two months. More serious crimes like armed robberies should be monitored by senior officials on a daily basis. The most serious crimes, like terrorism, should be given special attention, he added.
Iqbal also proposed that mosques be allowed to use just one loudspeaker instead of four, and all vacant posts at the National Counter-Terrorism Authority be filled with “professionals” or retired army officers.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 5th, 2013.