48,000 complaints and they’re not about stolen bicycles—I

Lahore Operations DIG Faisal Kamran speaks to journalists about policing challenges, social problems, and the scale of law and order work in Lahore

Muhammad Faisal Kamran, deputy inspector general (DIG) of operations Lahore, sat down with a group of journalists on Saturday for a relaxed and frank conversation about what it is really like to run policing operations in one of Pakistan’s largest cities.

He asked that the session be kept informal and light. “This is not a formal meeting,” he said with a smile. But what followed was anything but light. It was a detailed, honest picture of a city facing deep social pressures.

One of the most striking things Kamran said was about the nature of the complaints his office receives. Over the past 31 months, he said, he has personally listened to 48,064 people.

And what do these people want? Not what many might think.

“People are not coming to us saying my bicycle was stolen or my bag is missing,” he said. “They are coming because a husband is beating his wife. A woman was burned with acid. Someone took money and ran away. A girl was kidnapped. A marriage was broken. A woman was killed for dowry.”

These, he said, are the real problems of society, and they land every day on the desks of Lahore police.

Mr Kamran also shared a story about the government’s order for police officials to call the people ‘sir’ or ‘madam’, depending on the gender. The story got a laugh from the journalists but carried a serious message.

He said that when police officials recently began going door to door for inspections, one official rang a doorbell at a house and said if ‘sir’ was present.. A woman looked down from upstairs and told the officials to wait outside.

“She called him something not very polite,” Kamran said. “But the point is this our officers must understand who they are serving and how much patience this job requires. An ordinary citizen who comes to us with a complaint needs respect and care.”

Mr Kamran shared the sheer volume of work Lahore police handle. Since April 2024 alone, the force has managed: 1,808 law and order situations, 895 protests, 124 sit-ins, 698 political rallies and 91 large public conventions

On top of that, there are VIP movements almost every day — judges from Lahore and Islamabad, the chief minister, the governor, army officials, foreign delegations, and Chinese nationals working on various projects. “I don’t think even Karachi sees this many movements in a day,” Kamran said.

Gambling, Vice, and Trapped Young People

The DIG also spoke seriously about what he called “moral crime.” Gambling, he said, destroys families quietly.

“Wherever there is gambling, all other crimes follow,” he said. “A gambler who keeps losing will eventually steal, rob, or worse.”

He spoke about hidden prostitution in small hotels and guest houses — places that look ordinary from outside. “Even the victims there are victims of society,” he said. “Young boys and girls, school and college students, who fell into a trap somewhere.”

As an example of how wide this problem reaches, he mentioned that the daughter of a traffic inspector was once found in such a place. “I tell this story not to shame anyone, but to show that no family is safe if we don’t act.”