LAHORE: Justice Rauf Ahmad Sheikh of the Lahore High Court (LHC) has directed Deputy

[Salman]

LHC asks DIG to submit report on arrest of POs

LAHORE: Justice Rauf Ahmad Sheikh of the Lahore High Court (LHC) has directed Deputy Inspector General Operations Wing of Lahore Police Ghulam Mahmood Dogar to submit a report about the arrest of 22 445 proclaimed offenders (POs) who are still at large by the third week of January.

The judge issued the directive while hearing petition of one Muhammad Ali, seeking the arrest of POs Shafique, Mazhar, Iffet Naeem and Haroon Aziz, involved in a fake deal of his 12 kanal lands.

The petitioner also alleged that the proclaimed offenders who snatched his property worth Rs 1 billion through forgery were walking free while police were taking no action.

On direction of the court, Dogar appeared on Thursday and informed that an effective campaign to arrest the 22,554 proclaimed offenders would be started soon.

The judge observed that it was alarming that such a large number POs were operating in the provincial metropolis and police was sleeping instead of arresting them. The Judge added that the police was sleeping and not the court, and it would provide protection to citizens if the continued to fail. The judge further observed that people were questioning what the judges were doing in the courts.

He also observed that judges and other government officials were getting huge salaries, which were collected through taxes, but were unable to solve their problems.

The Judge observed that that public was afraid of leaving their houses and it had become very difficult for people to visit markets at night. He added that most of the station house officers (SHO) of the provincial metropolis were running gangs at local levels so that they could be arrested and produced before the court to satisfy them.

The judge told the DIG that if SHOs were not performing their duties properly then they should be thrown out.