ISLAMABAD, August 18: A FAFEN monitoring report on Thursday said murder remained the most prevalent crime in the country during May 2011.
The report collected the number of registered First Information Reports (FIRs) against 27 offences in 63 districts across country – 61 of them reported 790 murder cases. These also included 25 reported cases of ‘honour killings’ in 12 districts. On average, 13 murder cases were registered in each of the 61 districts in May this year.
FAFEN collects the cases of 27 offences covered by Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and further categorizes them into five categories – physical harm, property, threat and fraud, crimes against women and ‘others’.
The report said attempted murder and physical injury were the second most widespread crimes. A total of 60 districts reported 949 FIRs of attempted murder as well as 2,056 cases of offences of physical injury or hurt.
FAFEN collected the registered cases from the offices of District Police Officers (DPOs) in 25 districts of Punjab, 17 in Sindh, 15 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), five in Balochistan and one in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT). These 63 districts registered 34,607 FIRs. Based on these statistics, the police in each district officially documented more than 18 crimes a day.
Regionally, 52% of total murder cases, 55% attempted murder and 78% of those of hurt were reported in the monitored districts of Punjab. Karachi district reported the highest number — 67 – murder cases in May 2011. It was followed by Faisalabad, Lahore, Gujranwala and Gujrat districts where 62, 61, 31 and 27 murder cases were registered respectively.
According to the report, nearly 74% of all FIRs were reported in Punjab, 14% in Sindh, 11% in KP and 1% each in Balochistan and ICT, respectively.
“The high rate of registration of crimes in Punjab can be attributed to the high population or the trust of people in the state-run judicial system,” the report said. But it added a low rate of crime reporting in Balochistan and KP does not necessarily represent a low crime rate, but may indicate that other factors are at work. “These might include the police failing to record crimes, citizens’ lack of trust in the police, and/or the existence of a strong parallel (traditional or community-run) justice system operating in various regions.”
Category wise, minor crimes constituted more than half of registered crime cases (55%), followed by property related crimes (22%), physical harm (12%), threat and fraud (8%) and crimes against women (3%).
Of the 7,570 FIRs registered against crimes pertaining to property across the country in May 2011, an overwhelming 84% were lodged in Punjab, 17% in Sindh and 1% each in KP, Balochistan and ICT.
About FAFEN:
FAFEN is a network of 42 civil society organizations working to foster democratic accountabilities in Pakistan. It is governed by the Trust for Democratic Education and Accountability.
