Police Access Service receives 10,822 complaints since inception

PESHAWAR: The majority of complaints received by the Police Access Service (PAS) end up in a compromise between the complainants and the accused.

PAS received 10,822 complaints since its inception on November 12, 2014 and up till May 10, 2016, 3,327 of them were settled amicably. Of the total, 2,474 were also found to be baseless.

The breakdown

According to data obtained by The Express Tribune, the highest number of complaints (4,331) was received in Peshawar while the lowest were in DI Khan (260).

Peshawar was followed by Mardan with 2,022 registered complaints. Hazara received 1,175 complaints, Malakand 547, Bannu 602, Kohat 770, enquiry and inspection team 943 and investigation assistant inspector general received 172 complaints, adding to a total of 10,822.

At least 2,474 complaints were found to be baseless and 381 FIRs were registered on the basis of these complaints. Meanwhile, 1,732 cases were found to be of civilian nature and action was taken in 1,584 cases, 148 were referred to Dispute Resolution Councils (DRC), 3,327 were resolved amicably, 655 are currently being processed and 252 cases are pending.

Out of the total of 10,822, 2,716 complaints were received against policemen and 8,106 were registered against others.

About 636 cases were registered against police in Peshawar, 366 in Mardan, 128 in Malakand, 155 in Bannu, 154 in Kohat, 58 in DI Khan, 207 in Hazara, 943 in enquiry and investigation department and 69 cases against police personnel were received by the investigation additional IGP.

Not so tech savvy

Although online and email complaint facility is available, majority of the complaints (2,509) were received in person and 2,821 reached PAS through the post office. The number of online complaints stood at 1,975 while 1,970 were received through SMS, 34 through fax and 191 through email.

Talking to The Express Tribune, a police official said PAS was launched after public complaints that police stations were not accessible. He said this was because police stations were highly secured due to terrorism threats. If a high-ranking official was accessed, the manual complaint registration process that followed made tracking reports extremely difficult.

“This year alone, we received 2,024 complaints so far out of which 418 were against policemen and 1,606 were against other people,” he said. “At least 123 cases remain pending this year,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 16^th, 2016.