Failure to help: ‘Bring your own car or pay for fuel’

Police say fuel rations not enough for operations

LAHORE: Police officials, citing shortage of fuel, have started asking citizens to bring their own cars or pay for fuel for police vehicles used during investigation and recovery raids.

Each police vehicle is currently given 40 litres of fuel for 5 days (8 litres per day). According to police officials around 6 six months ago, the fuel cards which enabled police vehicles to get fuel from the nearest petrol station were abolished. Police vehicles now have to go to Police Lines in Qila Gujjar Singh where they are issued a receipt from the Motor Transportation Officer (MTO) and then go to the Mughalpura police welfare petrol pump for refuelling.

An investigation officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, admitted that the police routinely ask complainants to pay for fuel and turn down many requests by citizens who ask the police to conduct raids. “The quantity of fuel we have is not sufficient so we try to save it for emergencies,” he said.

A police official in Manga Mandi said, “The vans we use have a mileage of around 8 kilometres per litre. It is time that the high-ups realise that 8 litres for 24 hours doesn’t do much for investigators. We also have to drive all the way to Qila Gujjar Singh first and then to Mughalpura.”

Hamayun Afzal whose mobile phone and laptop were stolen from Muslim Town told the Tribune that he had his mobile’s IMEI number traced. “When I went to the police and asked them to raid the location, they told me to bring my own car.” Ali Amjad, a South Cantonment resident, had a similar tale to tell. He had lodged an FIR three months ago after his mobile phone was snatched. Amjad said that at first the police had not given him a straight answer to why they were not raiding the location. “Finally a policeman told me that I would have to pay for the fuel.”

Mukhtar Gul of Hanjarwal also said that he had been told by police to bring his own car for a raid to track down people who had stolen five mobile phones from him. “I refused.”

SSP administration, Tariq Abbas, told The Express Tribune that the fuel card system had been abolished because the fuel company wanted to charge one per cent fee on transactions. “I know 8 litres of fuel are not enough for 24 hours but we do not have funds to supply more fuel,” the SSP said. According to Abbas police vehicles in cities should get 30 litres daily while those in rural areas should get 40 litres per day.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 24^th, 2011.