Briefing claims steep falls in overall crime, including 41% in Lahore, but the chief minister warns officers they will be removed if offences against women and children do not decline
LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif on Thursday gave the provincial police four weeks to improve law and order, singling out crimes against women and children, and warned that officers would be removed from their posts if results did not follow.
She issued the deadline at a special law and order meeting in Lahore, attended by regional and district police officers via video link, after expressing strong displeasure over rising offences against women and children. The meeting was told that overall crime had fallen across the province, including a 41% drop in Lahore, a contrast that framed the session: the headline numbers are down, but the crimes that most alarm the public are not.
The numbers police presented
Inspector General of Police Abdul Kareem briefed the meeting on what police described as a downward trend in crime across Punjab. According to the briefing, the steepest falls were in the Gujranwala region, down 67% overall and 73% in Gujranwala district, and the Gujrat region, down 58%, with Wazirabad down 67%.
Other regions reported declines of 52% in Bahawalpur, with Rahim Yar Khan down 50%; 47% in Multan, including 49% in Multan district and 50% in Vehari; 42% in Sahiwal, including 45% in Okara and 43% in Pakpattan; 36% in Rawalpindi, with Rawalpindi district down 42% and Jhelum 38%; 32% in Sheikhupura and Kasur; and 16% in Dera Ghazi Khan. Kot Addu reported a 27% fall, Layyah and Muzaffargarh 25%, Dera Ghazi Khan district 9% and Rajanpur 7%. The briefing did not specify the period being compared or which offences were counted.
Police also said the Mobile Police Station project had delivered 9,702 services to citizens.
Why the chief minister was not satisfied
The figures sit uneasily with other data. In Lahore, registered child sexual abuse cases rose 20% to 484 in the first seven months of 2026 compared with a year earlier, according to police records reported by The Lahore Times, with Iqbal Town up 81%. Police records also show 32 children were killed after being sexually abused in Punjab over two years, with Faisalabad, Kasur and Sheikhupura the worst-affected districts and Lahore fourth.
Analysts have also questioned how police headline numbers are compiled. Lahore police have previously claimed a 76% fall in overall crime even as the city recorded about 163 thefts a day between January and August, and rights groups have raised concerns about under-registration of complaints and about the role of lethal force in the Crime Control Department’s results.
The chief minister also referred to the recent incident in Multan, where a 15-year-old orphan, Waseem Abbas, was run over on October 19 and the prime suspect was killed in a disputed police encounter two days later, and received a detailed briefing on serious crimes.
Maryam Nawaz has repeatedly made violence against women a personal priority, describing protection of rural women as her red line last week. Lahore’s recent steps, such as panic buttons on footbridges, have drawn questions over how they will work in practice.
A long list of orders
Beyond the four-week deadline, the chief minister ordered visible police patrolling across the province “to instil a fear of the law among criminals”, and directed officers to identify crime hotspots and dismantle criminal networks. “A culture of hooliganism will not be tolerated in Punjab; there will be no leniency,” she said, also calling for robust action against narcotics.
All regional police officers were told to hold weekly crime meetings and submit performance reports on their district police officers, giving the provincial government a monthly scorecard against which to judge the deadline.
Police were ordered to take pre-emptive action against illegal weapons and recover them across the province. Lahore police said this month they had seized more than 5,000 pistols in an illegal arms drive this year.
She expressed dissatisfaction with traffic management and directed strict action against speeding, after Lahore traffic police announced zero tolerance for violations last month. The Dolphin Squad in Lahore is to receive motorcycles and other resources for patrols.
The meeting also directed police to curb wheat smuggling from all districts, especially along provincial borders. Flour prices and supplies have been under pressure this year, with the food department saying half of Punjab’s flour is now subsidised and daily supply figures failing to add up.
Other directives included intensifying the anti-corruption campaign inside the police and acting against personnel found involved, enforcing the ban on surveillance devices such as camera-embedded glasses, which the provincial government announced on October 19 after complaints of harassment and blackmail, and asking officers to reach out personally to the organisers of Tablighi gatherings, ahead of the annual congregations that typically draw large crowds to Raiwind near Lahore in November.
The chief minister voiced particular concern about the law and order situation in Rawalpindi division.
Riot police praised, fallen officers honoured
Maryam Nawaz commended the police’s Riot Management Control force for what she called exemplary performance during a recent proposed sit-in and ordered continued capacity building for the unit. The handout did not name the protest.
She paid tribute to police personnel killed on duty and directed that their families receive a lifelong salary and a support package.
The four-week deadline expires in the third week of November. With weekly regional reviews now required, the measure of success will be whether reported crimes against women and children fall, and whether the province publishes data detailed enough for the public to judge.
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