Police move to expedite convictions.

LAHORE -- The Lahore police have completed the investigation of record 140,000 cases and submitted their challans in the courts during the last 48 days, in a bid to help improve the rate of convictions of hardened criminals.

Nearly, 182,000 cases have been awaiting completion of investigation since 2017, an official source told Dawn here on Friday.

He says out of the total 140,000 cases, the 108,000 challans submitted in the courts pertained to the cases which were pending since 2017, while 34,000 others were registered later.

He says police investigators worked day and night to complete the investigation of these cases and the massive exercise will help tighten the noose around habitual criminals involved in house robberies, snatching mobile phones at gunpoint and other street crime.

Challans of 140,000 cases submitted in 48 days

The source says the pendency of such a huge number of criminal cases was taken up at meetings of senior command of the Lahore investigation police held under Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Bilal Siddique Kamyana following reports that the conviction rate was not up to the mark.

The CCPO was briefed that the repeat offenders were involved in most of the street crimes, but they were roaming freely because of incomplete investigation of their cases.

Resultant, a majority of these criminals had escaped punishments from the courts while many others were getting liberty to commit crime after securing bails. Following this, the official say, the CCPO asked the investigation DIG and SSP to hold division-wise meetings with the officers concerned to clear the pendency and also held meeting with the prosecution department high-ups to expedite the process.

He says there were also complaints that some prosecutors demand Rs5,000 to 40,000 to rectify shortcomings and approve the challans of the cases.

He says the CCPO also brought these...