'Murder remains most prevalent crime in country in May'

Murder remained the most prevalent crime in the country during May this year as 790 cases were registered in 61 districts of the country including 25 reported cases of honour killing. Punjab topped the list as nearly 74 percent FIRs related to murders were reported in Punjab followed by Sindh with 14 percent, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 11 percent and Balochistan and ICT one percent, respectively.
According to a crime monitoring report of the FAFEN, there were 27 First Information Reports (FIRs) of offences in 63 districts across country. Out of 790 murder cases 25 reported cases were of 'honour killings' in 12 districts. The average 13 murder cases were registered in each of the 61 districts monitored by FAFEN in May this year. Regionally, 52 percent of total murder cases, 55 percent were attempted murder and 78 percent were of those hurt 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 registered murder cases were reported respectively.
FAFEN collected the cases of 27 offences covered by Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and further categorises 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, 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.
"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, adding that 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 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 percent), followed by property related crimes (22 percent), physical harm (12 percent), threat and fraud (8 percent) and crimes against women (3 percent). Of the 7,570 FIRs registered against crimes pertaining to property across the country in May 2011, an overwhelming 84 percent were lodged in Punjab, 17 percent in Sindh and 1 percent each in KP, Balochistan and ICT.