NH&MP upgradation questions its motorway rape claim

ISLAMABAD:

The federal government approved purchase of 507 vehicles and created nearly 4,000 new positions for the National Highway and Motorway Police during the last one and half years to strengthen their manning capacity, which puts a question mark on a claim that the department lacked resources to deploy on Lahore-Sialkot Motorway.

According to the Ministry of Finance officials, the human resources and the logistics support was provided from December 2018 to June 2020.

These approvals were granted while relaxing ban on purchase of vehicles and new recruitments.

Of 507 new vehicles, as many as 269 vehicles were either 2,800cc or 1,600cc capacity high-powered vehicles aimed at facilitating the motorway police to chase law violators. Similarly, of 3,969 new posts, about 2,987 were of uniform personnel, according to the Finance Ministry officials.

However, many vehicles can be seen in private use of the government and the National Highway Authority officers, sources said.

A mother of three was robbed and raped in front of two of her children after being stranded on the Lahore-Sialkot Motorway early last week when her car ran out of fuel. The departments and officials responsible for providing security instead indulged in a blame game.

“The area where the assault happened, near Link Road, is the Punjab police's jurisdiction,” the Inspector General of Motorway Police Kaleem Imam said during a programme on a private news channel on Thursday.

Imam further stated that his institution could not be held responsible in the Gujjarpura gang-rape incident as the area where the assault took place did not yet fall under its jurisdiction. He had said that the road was currently out of NHMP's jurisdiction and that the motorway police would be deployed there once resources were made available by the Ministry of Finance.

However, statistics shared by the Ministry of Finance showed that from December 2018 to June 2020, the government approved purchase of 507 vehicles, including heavy-duty ones. As many as 3,963 positions were also created during this period.

The Lahore-Sialkot Motorway had been inaugurated in March this year and after that 228 vehicles and 2,456 positions were allowed by the Ministry of Finance.

In December 2018, the ministry sanctioned 12 posts, including four uniform positions. In March last year, 173 vehicles were sanctioned, including 15 jeeps of 2,800cc capacity and 76 of 1,600cc. A grade 21 position was also sanctioned by the Ministry of Finance in May last year.

Again in September last year, the finance ministry approved 1,500 new posts for the motorway police, including 457 uniform positions. In August last year, the ministry had also approved purchase of 106 vehicles that included eight jeeps of 2,800cc capacity and 50 cars of 1,600cc, showed the official record.

The finance ministry officials said that in April this year, 2,456 new positions were approved for the motorway police that included 1,939 uniform positions. On June 8 this year, the finance ministry sanctioned purchase of 228 vehicles, including three 2,800cc Fortuners and 117 1,600cc cars.

The finance ministry officials said that despite the austerity drive, the annual budget allocation for the motorway police was constantly increasing. For this fiscal year, parliament approved Rs7.8 billion budget for the National Highway and Motorway Police, which is higher by Rs272 million or 3.6% over the previous year.

In fiscal year 2017-18, the NH&MP budget was Rs6.8 billion.

The Punjab Highway Patrol is now temporarily taking over the Lahore-Sialkot Motorway. It was not clear what the actual needs of the motorway police were even after approval of the new positions and vehicles.

The Ministry of Communication told The Express Tribune that total length of highways and motorways is 13,700km and NHMP is deployed on 4,120km. On existing operational roads of 4,120km, against requirement of 1,432 vehicles, only 1,269 vehicles are available. There is a deficiency of 163 vehicles for existing operational roads.