LAHORE - A Swedish national of Pakistani origin took her case of injustice and police inaction over land grabbing to the top cop in town yesterday, posing question over the performance of Overseas Pakistanis Commission in Punjab.
Samina Naveed, in her application, has nominated some people who allegedly grabbed her house when she was out of country. But, according to the woman, the Gulberg Police were not cooperating with her against the land grabbers who had also been hurling life threats to her.
Cops at the CCPO Office tried to remove the lady from the entrance, after which she laid down on the road and refused to stand up until she gets justice.
Her protest led to long queues of traffic on Queens Road, leaving the motorists in limbo. Police officers entering or leaving the CCPO Office also faced problems due to the sit-in.
When the issue came to the knowledge of CCPO Muhammad Amin Wains, he took the woman to his office and listened to her complaint. The CCPO assured the lady of full cooperation in her case.
Almost 10 million overseas Pakistanis, who contribute over $18.45 billion to the national economy, are plagued by problems such as land grabbing on properties back home and a general lack of support from the country’s diplomatic missions abroad.
In order to keep up with the pace of increasing number of complaints especially related to property disputes, the Punjab government is going to set up facilitation centres for overseas Pakistanis in five districts.
As majority of the overseas Pakistanis complain their near and dear ones usurp their property with the help of the police, the Punjab government wanted such facilitation centres at district level which would have a full police station status to resolve the issues.
Initially, such five facilitation centres-cum-police stations will be set up in the provincial metropolis, Rawalpinidi, Gujrat, Gujranwala and one in southern Punjab.
These facilitation centres will work on one-window module and settle property disputes and issues of investment in housing societies, family disputes, criminal cases, telephone, electricity and sui-gas connections, travel agents and airlines related cases, employment requests/recommendations, financial matters/disputes, bank related matters, co-operative societies claims, advisory services/general information and any other nature of complaints.
The commission will also ensure that the police personnel posted in the commission are honest, hardworking and believe in service of mankind.