A many as 582 Punjab Police personnel have died of different diseases in one year in Faisalabad. At present 1,400 Faisalabad police personnel are suffering from chronic diseases apparently due to ‘poor’ working conditions, punishment threats, long working hours and mental torture from their ‘seniors’.
According to a report released by the police, 314 police personnel have died of heart disease this year in the police department. Similarly, 57 police personnel died of liver disease, 22 died of diabetics, 24 policemen due to cancer, 14 policemen succumbed to kidney failure and 13 died of brain hemorrhage.
Talking to the scribe, policemen said that the police department personnel were facing severe pressure in terms of work. They have been told to perform better in the few resources or face the music. They said that reprimanding police officers has become a routine matter. Due to undue pressure and punishment threats, a large number of policemen were suffering from chronic diseases.
They said that there were no fixed working hours for the police personnel and they were supposed to work for 48 to 72 hours continuously and on the one hand they face sleep disorder.
They complained that on the other hand, the punishments meted out by the police officers increase their fear causing health damages. They said that despite the harsh weather conditions for the past several years, they have been on duty on the roads, but despite this, senior police officers are not happy with their performance, which is also lowering their morale.
SSP Operations Kashif Aslam said in this regard that the police force is very small in proportion to the population of Faisalabad district but we do our best to maintain law and order due to which the duty hours of the personnel become longer. He clarified that it is the responsibility of the government to meet the shortage of personnel but every effort was being made to solve the problems faced by the police personnel.
Psychologist Dr Imtiaz Dogar said that if the good deeds of the police personnel are encouraged and they are not given continuous and long duty, the health problems of the personnel can be overcome.
