On average, 32 FIRs of vehicle theft and snatching were registered in each of the 76 districts, the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) monitored in August this year. Every month FAFEN's Governance Monitors collect statistics of FIRs registered for 27 offences falling under the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) from the offices of District Police Officers (DPOs).
In August, the monitors visited 76 DPO offices-29 in Punjab, 17 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 16 in Sindh, 13 in Balochistan and one in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT). The monitoring report said of all the FIRs, 55 percent pertained to other crimes, 21 percent to property crimes, and 13 percent to crimes involving physical harm to people, 9 percent to threat and fraud and 3 percent related to crimes against women. A regionwise break-up showed almost 73 percent of the total FIRs were registered in Punjab, 19 percent in KP, 6 percent in Sindh, 2 percent in Balochistan and 1 percent in ICT.
It said crimes of theft, motor vehicle theft, robbery and dacoity and motor vehicle snatching were the most widespread among property crimes in 60, 48, 47 and 44 districts respectively. The report said the highest number of FIRs for theft (723), motor vehicle theft (683), and robbery and dacoity (376) were reported in Lahore while the most cases for motor vehicle-snatching (152) were registered in Faisalabad. Region-wise, 91 percent of all 7,724 property-related FIRs were registered in Punjab, followed by 4 percent in Sindh, 2 percent each in KP and ICT and 1 percent in Balochistan.
Violent crimes like hurt, attempted murder and murder were reportedly most widespread as 71, 70 and 69 districts reported 4,324 FIRs for these offences. Together these three crimes constituted 93 percent of all the FIRs of physical harm registered in 76 districts. Overall, 67 percent of FIRs of crimes involving physical harm were registered in Punjab, 20 percentin KP, 8 percent in Sindh, 4 percent in Balochistan and 1 percent in ICT.
However, the report added that the relatively higher number of cases in Punjab may be attributed to its large population, willingness of the people to have FIRs registered, better police response and to the greater outreach of FAFEN monitors. Similarly, fewer cases being registered in regions like Balochistan do not necessarily mean a low crime rate. This may be attributed to limited outreach of FAFEN, victims opting not to have cases registered, unavailability of infrastructure or perhaps to people's tendency to resolve their conflicts through informal structures like Jirgas.
Another reason for low reporting from Balochistan could be that police jurisdiction is restricted to areas administratively classified as 'A', which are normally cities or suburbs, whereas Levies control the 'B' category regions comprising rural tribal areas in various parts of the province.
Ninety three percent of the FIRs registered nation-wide for crimes of threat and fraud were reported in Punjab, 3 percent in KP and 2 percent each in Sindh and Balochistan. An overwhelming 83 percent of the total FIRs for crimes against women registered in August were reported in Punjab, 7 percent in Sindh, 6 percent in KP and 2 percent each in Balochistan and ICT. Attempted murder topped the list of most widespread crimes with 1,110 FIRs reported in 71 of the 76 monitored districts followed by hurt, murder, theft and motor vehicle theft reported in 70, 69, 60 and 48 districts respectively.