Cops punished for skipping match-day duties

Over 20 personnel found absent during cricket match, routine traffic management

RAWALPINDI:

Up to 21 personnel of the City Traffic Police (CTP) were found to be absent without leave from their designated posts across the city and cantonment areas during cricket match duties and routine traffic-management assignments.

Rawalpindi Chief Traffic Officer (CTO) Farhan Aslam took a stern view of the matter and summoned all those concerned to headquarters. He directed that each officer attend a one-hour disciplinary session both prior to and following their deployment. Those who failed to comply with the summons were additionally fined Rs25,000 apiece.

In the wake of similar incidents recently reported in Islamabad, further complaints surfaced in Rawalpindi alleging that officers had abandoned their match-day and fixed-point duties without prior intimation and had displayed negligence in the performance of their responsibilities. It is understood that the CTO received reports implicating twenty-one traffic assistants and senior traffic assistants in breaches of service discipline, including absenteeism from their assigned points and failure to manage traffic flows, particularly during match-related duties.

Taking grave notice, the CTO instructed that all assistants and senior assistants report to headquarters upon the conclusion of match-day operations. The twenty-one officials found to have been negligent were ordered to attend, in scheduled phases, one-hour disciplinary drill sessions and lectures conducted by senior trainers at the District Police Lines — both before duty began and after it ended. Headquarters staff were directed to enforce these orders strictly.

Sources added that several officers did not present themselves for the disciplinary sessions and were therefore issued fines of five thousand rupees each.

A spokesperson for the CTP told The Express Tribune that the CTO had, from the outset, made it unequivocally clear that indiscipline and negligence during duty would not be tolerated. The recent disciplinary measures, he added, were introduced precisely to ensure that such personnel adhere rigorously to the required standards of professional conduct.