LAHORE, Sept 18: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif is likely to approve recruitment of 1,600 sub-inspectors (SIs) exclusively for the investigation cadre being formed for the first time in the Punjab Police, Dawn learned on Sunday.
Realisation that the existing lot of traditional police investigators (ASIs, SIs and inspectors) has failed to deliver and conviction rate in crimes against property and person has never surpassed a paltry 10 and 30 per cent, respectively, apparently swung the police bosses into action and they have came up with a massive overhaul plan.
Sources privy to the development told Dawn that the proposal of recruiting 1,600 SIs in a single hit and 6,000 police foot constables every year (30,000 in next five years) floated by Inspector-General of Police Javed Iqbal in a meeting held a week ago was appreciated by the provincial chief executive. A meeting is going to be held on Monday (today) wherein the chief minister is likely to give formal go-ahead to execute the plan.
The department earlier floated the proposal in 2008 and a presentation was given to the chief minister in 2009 too. However, the idea of recruiting such a large number of police personnel could not be materialised owing to certain reasons.
Sources said that the IGP convinced the chief minister that the recruitment of young graduates and their modernised and specialised training would improve quality of investigation and help revamp the investigation wing and improve people’s confidence in the police force.
Sources said the chief minister was initially of the view that deputy superintendents of police (DSPs) be recruited instead of upper-subordinates. However, the IGP and Capital City Police Officer Malik Ahmad Raza Tahir insisted that the recruitment of DSPs had proved to be a futile exercise in the past, especially in other provinces, as they indulged in corrupt practices and did not deliver the desired results.
The two top police officers were of the view that the recruitment of DSPs would also block the promotion of upper-subordinates.
The potential recruits, preferably science graduates, will be imparted one-year training on forensic and other scientific investigation techniques and they will remain part of the specific cadre being created for them.
Sources said that new recruitments would be made as a pilot project in the provincial capital alone. However, the plan would be extended to other cities and districts in phases.
They said that potential recruits would be given BS-15 and Rs20,000 extra allowance in order to weed out corruption inclinations.
In Lahore capital city police, there are 1,800 ASIs, 1,300 SIs and 284 inspectors and half of them are reportedly engaged with investigation wing and the Crimes Investigation Agency (CIA).
A senior investigation wing official, who is associated with the overhaul plan, told this reporter that the conviction rate of investigation police in connection with crimes against property was currently less than 10 per cent and up to 30 per cent in crimes against person.
He said the challan submission ratio was also below 50 per cent.
He said at least 84 per cent of investigation wing’s officials were either matriculates or even under-matriculates and they had been promoted from junior positions to senior slots primarily owing to length of their service but they did not possess requisite acumen to interrogate suspects on modern lines and that’s why they are more inclined to indulge in corrupt practices.
The official further said that the plan, if nodded by the chief minister, would help replace the entire lot of investigators while the incumbent ones would be either asked to opt for retirement or they would be transferred to other wings or field police battalions in their hometowns.
Judges also criticise the poor performance of investigators and hold them responsible for the poor conviction rate ensued by submission of insufficient forensic and circumstantial evidence.
As many as 113,342 cases of crime against person and property have been reported to the Punjab Police during first eight months of 2011 and 55,627 of them (49.07 per cent) have been challaned.
However, statistics regarding crimes against property show that the challan submission ratio is below 46 per cent as the investigation wing police challaned 33,484 cases out of 74,401 cases reported to it till Aug 2011.
Overall crime reported to the Punjab police has also witnessed an upward trend during last five years as 386,437 were cases
were reported in 2010 as compared to 342,561 cases reported in 2006.
Overhaul of investigation wing on the cards | Provinces | DAWN.COM