100,000 policemen in Sindh, yet 89,000 absconders walk free

An SHC inspection team revealed these numbers to the Supreme Court.

KARACHI: Even though Sindh has over 100,000 policemen to establish the writ of law, nearly 89,000 absconders and proclaimed offenders remain out of their clutches.

According to a report compiled by the Sindh High Court’s inspection team, the trial courts had declared as many as 88,998 accused as absconders or proclaimed offenders in a period of four years - between January 1, 2008, and November 30, 2012. The report was submitted by the Member Inspection Team (MIT)-II of the Sindh High Court to the Supreme Court. The report failed to mention the names of the fugitives, the nature of their offences and the current status of trials. The time period suggested, however, that all the accused have been walking free during the tenure of the present government.

After a particularly bloody summer of 2011, the Supreme Court took up the Karachi violence case to ensure that the lives of the citizens remain protected. In all the subsequent hearings, the judges have expressed nothing but displeasure over the police’s performance. The judges were also astonished when they found out that the number of investigation officers in the city was too little to carry out the task.

A lack of resources is an excuse used most often, but the annual budgetary allocation for the police force has reportedly gone up. In the year 2008-2009, the Sindh government had earmarked around Rs20 billion for the police force. Next year, the budgetary allocation surged to Rs26 billion, followed by Rs31 billion in the year 2010-2011. In the fiscal year 2011-2012, the allocation went up to Rs38 billion. For the current year, the government has set aside more than Rs39 billion to be spent on our police force.

According to the same report, there are 22,535 fugitives and proclaimed offenders in Karachi alone.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 11^th, 2013.