SPs ‘admonished’ over high pendency of sexual violence cases in Lahore

LAHORE: Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Bilal Siddique Kamyana admonished all the investigation wing divisional superintendents of police (SPs) for the pendency of 742 cases of sexual violence against women and children, out of the total 805 assigned to them for investigations.

The CCPO issued a ‘letter of displeasure’ to the Saddar Division investigation SP and gave ‘last warning’ to the Cantonment division SP, as these two divisions had the highest pendency, with 202 and 163 under investigation cases, respectively.

The cases were registered between June 1, 2024 and July 24 on the charges of sexual violence against women and children at the 85 police stations of the city and were to be investigated by the newly formed Special Sexual Offences Investigation Units (SSOIUs).

An official told Dawn the SSOIUs were constituted in the light of the new Anti-Rape Investigation and Trial Act passed a couple of years back.

He said Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has repeatedly issued instructions to the police high-ups to give top priority to such cases by timely completing their investigations and to get the culprits punished by the court of law. She had declared such offences as her ‘red line’, he added.

The official said that following the instructions, the Lahore police high-ups had posted trained and experienced women police officers as Investigation Officers (IOs) in the SSIOUs to ensure the comfort of the women and children subjected to sexual violence.

According to the official, during the meeting presided over by the CCPO the percentage of the cases being investigated by SSIOUs was very high. He said as per the figures analysed at the meeting, Saddar division had 202 cases of sexual violence pending investigation, the Cantonment division had 163 such case, Iqbal Town division 117, City division 116, Model Town 101 and the Civil Lines division had 43 cases under investigation.

The official said that such high pendency of such sensitive cases showed the scale of negligence and poor performance of the divisional SPs, who seemed to be least interested in providing relief to the victims of such a heinous crime.

He said that during the meeting the investigation SPs concerned failed to give any plausible justification to the CCPO for the delay in the completion of the investigations by SSIOUs.

He said that Mr Kamyana admonished the two SPs when they apparently tried to give “lame excuses” for the delay in investigations and said there was no room for ‘ifs and buts’ since the matter pertained to violence against women and children.

The CCPO said he believed in accountability of the officers holding senior positions as it was the best way to bring changes in the police system.

As per sources, the Lahore police’s senior command has received reports about “questionable financial integrity” with regard to some investigation officers but no action has so far been taken against them.

Source: Dawn