Citizens face hurdles in FIR registration

When those who are appointed to protect citizens do not fulfill their duties, chaos ensues and the same is unfolding in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).

The online first information report (FIR) system, which was a significant factor in police reform under the previous Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in K-P, was discontinued and now citizens face hurdles in reporting crime.

Khan Muhammad, who belongs to the Krishnapura area of Peshawar, is one of them. He has been in the medicine business for the past six years to support his parents. The 27-year-old takes medicine orders from the wholesale market and distributes them to pharmacy shops in different parts of the city.

Nearly two months ago, he was on his way home when mobile snatchers stopped him and took away his phone. The incident took place close to a police station and after Muhammad recovered from the intital shock he rushed to the Hashtnagri station to register a first information report (FIR). The ordeal he faced in registering a report has given him a general distrust of the system.

“At first they [police] asked me odd questions. Then they wrote my complaint on a piece of paper and asked me to go home and wait for their call. It has been two months that I have been waiting for a call,” an irate Muhammad informed The Express Tribune.

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Muhammad’s FIR has not been registered to date but he is not the only one. A medical student, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told this reporter that his phone and wallet were stolen on a bus rapid transit (BRT) in the Saddar area, nearly one month ago. “I went to the Gharbi police station immediately after the incident and my complaint was noted down on a plain paper. No FIR has been registered so far and no recovery or progress has been made in the case,” the distraught student lamented.

Similarly, Azrab, a resident of Chamkani, while talking to The Express Tribune, stated that he was robbed at gunpoint four months ago of his phone and other items valued at Rs 1.5 million. “Only a log report was lodged and I continue to wait for a FIR to be registered,” he informed.

This consistent pattern of not registering an FIR in the provincial capital happens at a significant number of the 34 police stations in Peshawar, as per sources. These police sources disclosed to The Express Tribune that only log reports of more than 60% of street crime cases like mobile and purse snatching are registered. “The log report does not reach the top of the hierarchy. As a result, the increase in crime rate within the limits of any police station is not known to the senior officers,” the sources stated.

Ali Gohar, a senior lawyer based in Peshawar, commenting on the issue, informed that the police diary had no legal status and that registering an FIR with the police after any crime is a fundamental right of a citizen. “If the FIR of a citizen is not registered in any police station, then the code of criminal procedure (CRPC) is not being complied with, which is against the law,” Gohar told The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 11^th, 2021.