LAHORE: Strict checking of suspicious individuals and vehicles is continuing at checkpoints across the provincial capital, where an attempt to bribe police personnel has resulted in an arrest.
According to details, during checking at the Saggian checkpoint a suspicious individual attempted to offer a bribe to police personnel. The officers rejected the offer and took him into custody.
According to a Dolphin spokesperson, instead of accepting the offer of a bribe, police personnel shifted the suspicious individual to the police station for further legal proceedings. The checkpoint in-charge handed over the arrested man, identified as Yasir, to Shahdara police station for further action.
SP Mobiles Bilal Ahmad said that offering a bribe to police personnel is also an act against the law.
He appealed to members of the public to discourage practices such as bribery and to support the police in upholding the law.
That legal point is frequently misunderstood. In Pakistani law, corruption is a two-sided offence. The Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947 and the relevant provisions of the Pakistan Penal Code criminalise the giving as well as the taking of illegal gratification to a public servant, and abetment provisions extend liability to those who attempt to induce an official to act improperly. A person who offers money at a checkpoint is therefore not merely a witness to an offence but a party to one.
Naka, or checkpoint, duty is one of the most visible functions of Lahore’s policing structure and is performed in part by specialised patrol formations, including the Dolphin Squad and Mujahid Squad, alongside station-level personnel. The Dolphin Squad, a motorcycle-mounted patrol force introduced in Punjab in 2016, was designed for rapid response and mobile checking in dense urban traffic.
Checkpoints are simultaneously the point at which the public most often encounters the police directly, and the point at which the institution’s integrity is most exposed. Reports of demands for money at nakas have long shaped public perception of the force, which is precisely why an incident in which an offer was refused and recorded carries institutional value beyond the individual case.
Punjab Police have in recent years introduced measures aimed at reducing discretionary interaction at the front line, including body-worn cameras for certain formations, e-challaning to remove cash from routine traffic enforcement, and centralised complaint recording.
Anti-corruption enforcement in the province otherwise rests with the Anti-Corruption Establishment Punjab and, for offences within its statutory remit, the National Accountability Bureau, while departmental discipline is handled internally.
Yasir has been handed to Shahdara police station, where a case is expected to proceed under the relevant provisions. Further investigation continues. The Lahore Times has not independently verified the circumstances of the offer beyond the police account.
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