PAT issues report on crises, crimes & government’s incompetence during January 2015

PAT Secretary General Khurram Nawaz Gandapur has issued a report on the rulers’ incompetence and rising graph of crimes recorded in the month of January in Punjab province. He said that with the resignation of former Punjab Governor Ch. Muhammad Sarwar, the story has not ended but has rather begun. He said that the Punjab Chief Minister will have to answer as to who is patronizing the land mafia in the province. He said that stone-hearted rulers who martyred 14 people and injured about 100 more in Model Town could stoop low to any level.

Talking about the report prepared by PAT media cell regarding increasing number of crimes and crises during the month of January 2015, Khurram Nawaz Gandapur said that as long as these rulers stay imposed on the nation, crises will continue to recur and the masses will continue to suffer consequently.

According to the report, 200 people committed suicide due to poverty, destitution and hunger in the first month of 2015. Zeeshan, a poor fish seller belonging to Anarkali area, set himself on fire due to oppression of the government’s departments and 170 citizens were severely tortured in the police station across the province including the PAT workers belonging to Bhakhar and Okara. 3, 70,000 crimes of grave nature took place throughout the province from January 01 to January 30 that included robbery, dacoity, murder, thefts, attempt to murder, robberies, and incidents of snatching cars, motorbikes, mobiles and purses.

The report said that the police started the process of registering FIRs after carrying out ‘inquiry’ by invoking a self-styled law, which resulted in the failure to register 80% of FIRs. The sole purpose of this mechanism is to show least number of crimes in the province. The honourable judges of the Lahore High Court described police as criminal, incompetent and robber in ten cases currently being heard by them that involve grave and serious violations of citizens’ rights and highhandedness by police.

The report established through empirical data that the month of January, like the previous months, remained abysmal in terms of abuses of the children, both male and female. 300 incidents of rape, attempt to rape and killings of children were reported in the month of January. It includes heart-rending incidents of rapes of younger girls in Gujranwala, Lahore, Faisalabad, Hafizabad and Hujra Shah Muqueem where girls aged between 4 and 10 years were raped and killed. The Punjab police failed to protect children and apprehend the perpetrators of these crimes and the accused could only be arrested in 2% of cases.

The report said that genie of unemployment has come out of bottle in Punjab. One lac and sixty three thousand youths, qualifying the criteria, applied for 300 jobs in police department in January and the number is sufficient to give one an idea of gravity and seriousness of the problem of joblessness. These statistical figures have been compiled on the basis of reports and news published and broadcast in both national and regional print and electronic media on daily basis and those submitted by PAT media cells at district level across the province.

The report stated that the citizens of Punjab were robbed of Rs. 70 to 80 billion in January through manufacturing of artificial crises of gas, LPG and petrol. The Minister for Petroleum, who is responsible for the petrol crisis, humiliated the people by calling them beggars. The power breakdown took place three times in the month due to incompetence of the government and effort was made to shift the responsibility to terrorists.

The report has revealed that the sugar mafia has now planned to create shortage of sugar in the country. It further said that 83 children died in Sargodha due to shortage of medicines and non-provision of other medical facilities in the month of January and about 100 to 150 children are dying due to lack of facilities in every district and the Punjab government is not interested to address this problem.

Khurram Nawaz Gandapur said that the Prime Minister went to Karachi to condole over the extra-judicial killing of an MQM activist, adding that every citizen of the country should get justice. He, however, added in the same breath that unless the killers of 14 innocent people who perpetrated this horrible crime on the instructions of the Punjab Chief Minister in Model Town are punished, the Prime Minister’s exhibitionist steps would not bear any fruit.