Public safety: Wireless phones restrict citizens’ access

Thirty-six of 57 wireless phones in city's police station not responsive.

LAHORE: Of the 57 wireless telephone sets in police stations of the city, 35 are frequently out of order, making these stations virtually inaccessible to complainants.

According to a list available to The Express Tribune, of the 80 police stations in Lahore, 57 have wireless telephone sets installed by the National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC).

Asked for his comments on the situation, SP (Administration) Tariq Abbas said he had not yet received any complaint about the wireless telephone sets. He added that even if the administration received such complaints, it may lack funds to fix the equipment.

A police official speaking on condition of anonymity said that most of the wireless sets had signal problems making it difficult to communicate with complainants and policemen in the field. He said he and some colleagues had informed the high ups several times about the fault but they did not appear to take notice of the complaint.

The official said at times the sub inspectors in charge themselves powered off the wireless sets. Then if people complain they are told that the lack of access is due to power outages as these sets run out of battery power very quickly.

He said a quick solution to the issue could be a complete shift to land lines. He said that some police stations had already abandoned wireless sets and got land lines. These, he said, included the Rang Mahal, Naulakha, Sherakot, Manawan and Burki police stations.

A sub divisional officer at the NTC, Hasham, said the NTC had to rely upon wireless telephone sets because it had a very short number of land lines in the city.

He said that the police officials should not complain about weak signals because they declined the external antenna facility offered by the NTC. These antennas, he said, were available with the NTC and the police stations served by wireless phones were told that they could buy them to alleviate signal problems.

Most of the wireless sets are installed in the City Division police precinct. 16 of the 21 stations falling in the division have wireless telephone connections. City SP Shehzad Asif however declined comment saying he had only recently taken charge of the post and was not clear about the extent of the problem.

Iqbal Town Division SP Romail Akram said that he had received numerous complaints about the wireless sets. He said, however, that at the five police stations falling under his jurisdiction, the sets had already been replaced with PTCL land lines. PTCL directory service 1217, however, list only one of the five stations (Shera Kot police station).

Cantt Division SP Jawad Qamar also claimed that all wireless sets in police stations in the division had been removed and replaced with PTCL land lines.

The 1217 helpline, however, confirmed that only two of the six police stations in the division had listed phone numbers.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 25^th, 2010.