LAHORE: Annoyed at the failure of the Lahore police to control crime, Inspector General of Punjab Police Amjad Javed Saleemi directed Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) BA Nasir and DIG Operations Waqas Nazeer to spend an hour daily at the police pickets set up at the entry/exit points of the provincial capital.

He also directed them to ask all the 32 SPs as well as SSPs serving in Lahore to perform duty for an hour at the police pickets instead depending on their subordinates.

The IGP took this step, first of its kind, in a meeting at the Central Police Office held on Monday, specifically in the wake of deteriorating crime situation in the provincial capital.

Besides CCPO BA Nasir and DIG Operations Waqas Nazeer, DIG Investigation Dr Inaam Waheed, SSP Operations Mustansar Feroze and SSP Investigation Zeeshan Asghar were present in the meeting.

An official, privy to the information, said the IGP had expressed utter displeasure at the ‘bad habit’ of the senior police officers to spend most of their time in their offices rather than going into the field.

He added the IGP addressed CCPO Nasir, particularly, after he was told that Mr Nasir used to spend most of his time in his office, didn’t convene crime meetings and avoid public visiting his office to register complaints.

“I would not spare the police officers spending times in their offices rather leaving them (offices) for crime prevention,” the official quoted the IGP as saying.

While having a detailed overview of the crime statistics pertaining to 2018 in Lahore, the IGP also gave go-ahead to the strategy for 2019. He expressed dissatisfaction with the measures taken by the Lahore police for crime prevention, saying one of the major factors behind the sorry state of affairs had been the poorly managed police pickets set up at the entry and exit points of the provincial capital.

“Let me know how many SPs are serving in Lahore,” the IGP asked the police officers in the meeting.

On being told that there are 32 SPs, the IGP issued orders for deputing the CCPO and DIG Operations at the police pickets along with special devices to check vehicles. He fixed an hour, minimum period, for them to spend at the police pickets, especially at Thokar Niaz Baig and Shahdara, the official, who did not want to be named, said.

“You should personally enter the data of the vehicles crossing the pickets on mobile phone apps for verification,” the IGP was quoted as telling the said officers. Later, all the 32 SPs should be deputed for an hour after preparing a comprehensive schedule for the police pickets.

The IGP said data of stolen vehicles and motorcycles should be provided to the SPs and other officials concerned on these pickets so that with the help of this app, the vehicles and motor cycles could be identified.

On being asked, the DIG operations told the IGP Punjab that out of one million motorcycles plying on Lahore’s roads, 100,000 were unregistered.

At this, the IGP said that in order to stop theft of motorcycles and vehicles, safe city authority and IC3 programme officials of the Punjab Police should make a working mechanism so that the citizens might use their transport without any fear.

Published in Dawn, January 1st, 2019