FAISALABAD: City Police Officer Athar Ismail has lashed out at SPs for what he said their failure to trace 13 high profile cases of terrorism, murder, robbery and rape and to control the overall law and order.

A couple of days ago, Punjab IG Arif Nawaz had also expressed his dismay over the poor performance of the district police and asked the CPO to improve the working by utilising all available resources.

In his letter, the IG said the police had managed to arrest 1,049 (11 per cent) proclaimed offenders out of 9,607. Of 1,018offenders of heinous crimes, 174 (17pc) were nabbed.

`Besides, 50 cases for first change of investigation, 76 show-cause notices and 74 departmental inquiries are still pending,` the letter reads.

Following the annoyance of the IG, the CPO issued a letter to SPs and cited statistics that showed no let-up in the incidents of crime particularly robbery, auto theft/ snatching and robbery-cum-murder.

Under such circumstances it can safely be presumed that no crime prevention/detection strategy has been evolved to nab the criminals/outlaws, who are operative in the area without any fear,` the letter [issued by CPO] reads.

The CPO asked the SPs to take prompt measures on a war footing otherwise the situation would deteriorate day by day.

`Moreover, there is a general complaint that dens of narcotics, gambling and pros-titution are operational with the connivance of police.

The CPO said following the video link conference of the IG, specific directions had already been issued to launch crackdown on dens, but the existence of [such] complaints showed that no heed was paid to comply with the lawful directions of the senior command.

The CPO said numerous meetings were held to monitor the progress of 14 highprofile cases registered with the Civil Lines, Peoples Colony, Nishatabad, Chak Jhumra, Madina Town, Sargodha Road, Factory Area, Samanabad, Dijkot, Khurrianwala and Saddar Jaranwala police. But just one case was resolved, leaving a question mark on the performance of SPs and the supervisory tiers as well.

`Even no follow-up/regular meeting up to the level of SHOs are being held toassess their performance, resultantly criminals are beyond the police reach, the CPO said.

ARRESTED: The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) caught red-handed a director of the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) receiving bribe for issuance of no-objection certificate (NOC) in favour of a private housing colony on Tuesday.

Nadeem Akhtar, associated with a real estate developer, informed the ACE officials that Faqir Hussain Babar, director (Housing Colonies) Wasa, was demanding bribe to issue the NOC.

A team, comprising ACE assistant director Anwaarul Hassan Sherazi and Special Judicial Magistrate Zeeshan Labha, was formed which caught Babar while receiving Rs45,000 from the complainant.

A case has been registered with the ACE police station.