Rule of Law?

Punjab police not implementing 90pc of SC orders
* IGP admits to presence of 45 criminal gangs
* Police hurting government’s credibility, says CJP
Staff Report: Daily Times, December 22, 2006

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Thursday said that Punjab police were not implementing 90 percent of the Supreme Court’s orders and a large number of reported gangsters were playing with the life and honour of the province’s people.

“The Punjab police’s negative role is hurting the government’s credibility. Gangsters are playing with the lives of the people and police seem to be silent spectators despite possessing all resources and privileges to counter crime,” the chief justice observed while conducting the suo moto proceedings of a case regarding Punjab’s high crime rate and the presence of different gangs operating without checks.

The chief justice has directed his office to compile details of all apex court human rights cases that did not comply with Article 190 of the Constitution and under which all executive and judicial authorities throughout Pakistan were bound to act in aid of the apex court.

Maj (r) Ziaul Hassan, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), will formally prepare a report in this regard. The IGP, who appeared on court notice, admitted to the presence of 45 gangs in the province. Punjab Advocate General Aftab Iqbal added that 26 gangs reportedly existed in Rawalpindi alone.

The IGP submitted before the court that concerted efforts were being made by the Punjab police to act upon court directives. He claimed to have conducted a string of raids in which a number of criminals had been arrested. He also tried to submit a report on police efforts in carrying out court directives, but the chief justice rejected his report and observed that all those efforts were not result oriented.

On this, the IGP sought more time for showing progress in the case, and the bench – consisting of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan – adjourned the matter till January 12, 2007. Citing some reports, the chief justice said that foul play in police ranks was of such a nature that Lahore police were reportedly even divided on the registration of an FIR.

The chief justice started suo moto proceedings on the reports of the activities of gangsters in Punjab. The court issued directives to police to arrest gang leader Muhammad Aslam alias Basa along with co-accused Sarwar Khan and Asif Khan. Though both co-accused were now in Kot Lakhpat jail, after their arrest, Basa strengthened his gang once again by inducting Akran Charri, Asghar and others.

According to the record, there were 11 registered cases against Basa’s gang, involving four cases of murder, abduction and dacoits. In addition, 13 cases were also registered against those people who had given shelter to these criminals.

The record shows that police have formed three special teams to bust these gangs in addition to announcing prize money for the capture of some criminals. Aslam Basa carries a price of Rs 1 million, while Mobeen Butt, Khalid Chattha, Rasheed alias Rashoo and Muhammad Mooda are worth Rs 0.7 million, 0.5million, 0.5 million and Rs 0.2 million respectively.