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ISLAMABAD: Inspector General of Police Ali Nasir Rizvi has ordered an inquiry and constituted a fact-finding committee to probe emerging policing practices, including the non-registration of FIRs and downgrading the severity of crime.
Police officials told Dawn that the IGP office constituted the committee, comprising the deputy inspector general (operations), the director general of the Safe City, the assistant inspector general operations, the AIG investigation and complaints, the senior superintendent of police operations, and the public relations officer to the IGP. The committee would probe allegations that the capital police were not registering FIRs according to the volume and nature of complaints received by police as well as discrepancies between e-tags and the FIRs registered against those e-tag numbers.
Besides, in certain property-related cases, the local police did not apply the appropriate law sections. For instance, cases were registered under Section 392 (robbery) of the Pakistan Penal Code instead of Section 395 (dacoity).
The officials told Dawn that the inclusion of three officers, DIG operations, DG Safe City and SSP operations, in the committee raised concerns about transparency, as they were responsible for ensuring the registration of cases against each complaint as per the law. The three officers have access to the complaint management system (CMS) and they could check the status of e-tags, FIRs, and other policing matters with a single click on their computer screens. They, however, claimed they failed to curb the practice either intentionally or due to a lack of interest in their professional duties.
Fact-finding committee to probe discrepancies in e-tag, FIR numbers, practice of downgrading offences
Dawn approached the police chief, Ali Nasir Rizvi, for his comments on the inclusion of the said three officers in the report. IGP Rizvi deflected the question, but responded that a complete report would be issued by the department to clear the confusion surrounding discrepancies in the e-tag number and FIRs’ registration.
The IGP said many allegations and observations were factually different from the ones mentioned in the media report that prompted the inquiry. He said the initial inquiry showed several things mentioned in the report were misleading.
The IGP, however, did not address a query regarding the theft of a two-wheeler owned by a driver of an important official posted at a top office. The police did not register the FIR on the directives of a senior officer and the matter was later brought to the IGP’s attention. DIG Operations Jawad Tariq was also approached for comments on the issue, but he did not respond.
In his response shared with the inquiry committee, the Safe City chief said that after analysing the subject, the CMS record, and all the relevant records of police stations, it was revealed that many complaints of cognisable offences were not entered into the CMS at the police station level.
At times, e-tags were not numbered due to various issues, such as non-availability of internet, electricity or malfunctioning of computers. In such circumstances, the complaints were registered manually.
Furthermore, the e-tag number of complaints did not necessarily match with the FIR numbers because many of the e-tags were closed as the same were redressed. Moreover, it has also been revealed that, at the police station level, officers tended to minimise the severity of crimes by applying incorrect sections of law, which needed to be addressed by senior officers.
A total of 18,550 complaints were received and out of these, 14,288 complaints pertained to the loss of documents and other non-cognisable issues, where registration of an FIR was not required. While only 4,261 complaints fell under the category of crime/cognisable offences and 4,239 FIRs were registered against such complaints. The officials said that reports from the other members of the inquiry committee were awaited.
Published in Dawn, May 2nd, 2025