Following the biggest bogus staff scandal to hit the Punjab police, some 136 police officers were booked under Anti-Terrorism Act and dismissed from service. The booked officials included those who were providing security services to the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and other VIPs in the past. The said officers were under employment of a cops’ gang that gave bogus jobs to a large number of jobseekers. Last week, police detained seven of the gang who employed about 136 false cops in the country’s largest police service. For several years, the gang had been actively operating with impunity in the Central Police Office. Meanwhile, about 32 FIRs had been filed against 136 dismissed officers under Section seven of the Anti-terrorism Act and other sections of the criminal act. It was revealed that the administrative and clerical staff at the office of the Punjab Inspector General of Police had recruited bogus officers from year 2010 to 2013. Furthermore, it is believed that the aforementioned gang had established a strong network in the Punjab accountant general’s office and regional police offices. Presently, a high-powered probe squad is investigating the Central Police Office to discover more details on this scam. It was learnt through reliable sources that the gang, headed by an assistant director and comprising superintendents, assistants and clerks at the IGP’s office, had issued fake appointment orders with real signatures and office stamps. The gang had collected bribes worth millions of rupees from unemployed youth to provide them with jobs in the police department. The phony appointments were made on the posts of sub-inspectors, assistant sub-inspectors and constables and that too in areas like Multan and other districts of the province from the Central Police Office. It is often said by independent research groups, that the Pakistan Police is the most corrupt establishment in the country. The Punjab Police has been in the eye of the storm this year with anti police sentiment running high since the Kasur scandal also attributed to the utter negligence of the Police force and their failure to protect the citizens. Cases of torture, bribes, and unwarranted arrests are commonplace. This is just another straw on the broken back on the camel that is our civilian security apparatus.The police force is supposed to be the savior of the common man where instead, it is a source of fear and terror. The Rangers operation in Karachi was welcomed because of the utter uselessness of the police to bring the law and order situation under control. The police are making it too easy for the Rangers to come and take over the Punjab province as well, as they are failing at every level of accountability; internally and externally.
pk.shafaqna.com
