Pindi police still grappling with 2,000 cases

Number of pending criminal cases declined to 3,500 in ’12 from 7,750 in ’11.

RAWALPINDI:

The Rawalpindi police are still grappling with about 2,000 pending criminal cases they lodged last year. The investigators, it has been learnt, are yet to file challans in these cases before the relevant courts.

According to a data collected from the district police office and the district public prosecution branch, as many as 1,820 criminal cases were registered in 28 police stations last year.

According to another document available with The Express Tribune, the number of pending cases has significantly declined to 3,500 in 2012 as compared to 7,750 in 2011 and 4,676 in 2010. This drop in number of pending criminal cases was partly due to the direction of the Supreme Court to the Punjab police to file challans quickly following the relevant procedural laws, says Basharatullah Khan, a lawyer and expert on criminal cases. He said that most of the challans submitted before trial courts remain inconclusive, as interim reports filed by the police have always had basic flaws, leaving a space for further investigation.

Talking about the pending investigations, the lawyer said that under the criminal procedure code, an investigation officer is supposed to conclude the investigation within two weeks time.

“The law could not be followed by the police (the investigators), as they have to struggle with a multitude of other urgent matters from patrolling to maintaining the law and order and performing protocol duties,” he said adding that this is the apparent reason, the judges often show leniency in such cases.



Owing to the pending investigations, district prisons are overcrowded with under trial prisoners, says Advocate Asad Abbasi, a young lawyer.

Either the law regarding prosecuting criminal cases should be amended giving a specified timeframe for completion of the investigation or the police officers (investigators) should be bound to practice the law to become more adept in expediting such cases, Abbasi said.

District Public Prosecutor, Ameer Tariq Mustafa, confirmed that the number of pending investigations have declined significantly this year following the direction of the Supreme Court to frame charges within the specified time.

He said that his office examines the challans submitted by the police before recommending the same for submission in the trial courts.

City Police Officer Azhar Hameed Khokhar said that the decline in the number of pending cases shows the improved performance on the part of the Rawalpindi police.

“Despite being engaged in numerous duties such as patrolling, maintaining the law and order and other related matters, the investigation officers have relatively done a good job,” the CPO added.

He, however, maintained that extra efforts were required of the investigation officers to cope with the increasing number of pending cases and the newly lodged FIRs.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 19^th, 2013.