66,195 murders and 15,898 rapes reported between 1998 to 2004

* Suppliers will repair defective locomotives: Railway minister

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: Some 66,195 cases of murder and 15,898 cases of rape were reported between 1998 to 2004, Federal Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao told the Senate on Tuesday.

He said that 50,121 kidnappings; 1,487 highway robberies; 18,258 car thefts; 386,977 thefts and 1,035 child abuse cases were also reported during the same period. According to province-wise breakdown, the interior minister said Punjab topped the list in every category except car lifting in which Sindh took the lead with 11,629 occurrences against 3,518 in Punjab.

He said that 34,225 murders were reported in Punjab; 13,542 in Sindh; 16,377 in the NWFP; 1,517 in Balochistan and 534 in Islamabad, while 11,435 rape cases were reported in Punjab; 2,108 in Sindh; 1,545 in the NWFP; 429 in Balochistan and 381 in Islamabad.

In kidnappings, 41,091 cases were reported in Punjab; 7,075 in Sindh; 1,356 in the NWFP; 476 in Balochistan and 123 in Islamabad, while 1,236 cases of highway robberies were reported in Punjab; 172 in Sindh; 44 in the NWFP, 26 in Balochistan and nine in Islamabad, he added. He said that 364,385 thefts were reported in Punjab; 13,433 in Sindh; 5,426 in the NWFP; 2,468 in Balochistan and 1,265 Islamabad, while 478 cases of child abuse were reported in Punjab; 425 in Sindh; 62 in the NWFP; 52 in Balochistan and 18 cases were reported in Islamabad.

The interior minister said that 156 travel agents were found involved in human smuggling during the last two years (2003-2004) and legal action was taken against them by the passport circles of the Federal Investigation Agency.

Sherpao said the government was not considering any proposal to allow Pakistani citizens to travel to India in private vehicles.

Mian Shamim Haider, railways minister, told the House that 69 diesel locomotives were purchased from a Chinese firm in 2001 at the cost of $69 million out of which 31 locomotives had already been received.

He said out of the 31 received, 10 locomotives had developed major defect however the government had not spent any money on the repair of these locomotives because the suppliers were responsible for repairing faults under the maintenance clause in the agreement.

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