LAHORE:
Several guest houses and massage centres in Faisal Town operate as brothels with police protection, according to employees at these establishments.
There are at least 12 guest houses and three massage parlours in the jurisdiction of Faisal Town police station, and most of them either directly provide their customers with prostitutes or allow them to bring them to their rooms. Guests are told upon check-in that the hotel is for families, but then advised to do as they wish, just not inform the guest house administration.
Sources in the police alleged that Faisal Town station house officer Ghulam Nabi Bakhsh Butt was allowing these places to operate and earned a commission from them. They said SHO Butt had been telling senior officers for the last year that he had cleared his area of such establishments.
But a few days earlier, DSP Jahangir Butt of Garden Town Circle raided three guest houses in Faisal town police precincts and arrested men and women along with two constables of Faisal Town police, Manzoor Asif and Attique Butt.
Sources said that these two, who have been nominated in an FIR for prostitution, had been suspended earlier but were still working with the SHO.
Rooms in these guest houses range from Rs1,800 to Rs5,500. The cost of prostitutes varies between Rs6,000 and Rs20,000. The guests are directed to local pimps either by the hotel administration or by employees such as receptionists or waiters.
An employee of one guest house said on condition of anonymity that SHO Butt protected these guest houses and massage parlours. But because of the recent raids ordered by the SHO’s superiors, “business as usual” had been suspended till March 1. He said that a sub inspector had led a raid of the hotel recently and told them to stop renting out their rooms until March 1.
He said that all the guest houses in Faisal Town police jurisdiction were conveyed the aforesaid message.
An employee of another guest house said they did not allow prostitution, but the police raided them anyway and harassed guests. These raids happen off and on until the SHO’s palms are greased, he said. He too said that police officials had advised them to “go under cover” for a few days.
SHO Butt denied the allegations. He said that he had maintained firm control of his area for the last year and had instructed all the hotels not to allow prostitutes in their rooms. He said some hotels were still allowing these activities. “We have maintained a diary in which we keep information of the guests in the hotels,” he added.
He said that the recent raids at guest houses were made for security reasons and had nothing to do with alleged prostitution.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 25th, 2011.
Not only that but Police also provides protection to hundreds of brothels/street drug peddlers located in residential areas of all big cities in Pakistan. I am witness to such an incident where a brothel started operating in our lane and it was properly guarded by Police. We had hell of a tough time to get rid of it.
Is it just me, or we all see a lot of ‘Butts’ in this article? (pun intented, so is the stereotype)
It is the sacred duty of Police force to protect the every citizen (read: prostitute) of the state because for a progressive and enlightened society such cultured sections of society are very necessary. (pun intended albeit without any clever usage of words)
@Yousuf:
welcome to lahore baby….u’ll never come across a street in lahore where you dont see a Butt
@Yousuf and @Ahmed,
Butts are the Kashmiri Bhat brahmins who converted to the the most peaceful religion of Islam, overpowered by its sheer spirituality, open mindedness and religious tolerance during the very non-violent rule of Aurangzeb.
BTW, Indian brahmins are known to be very smart/scholarly people with a scheming reputation. So, draw your own conclusions!!
They are all over Islamabad as well….in residential areas. The police know…how could they not….the people know but remain silent. Where are the protests and the Mullahs now? There is a mosque located right across from one that I have seen chinese women in salwar kameez flirting all over men comming out of cars to go in with them. A man sits at a desk inside the side door as they walk in together. And then the door closes. This is a house that no family lives in and it is not a guest house either. Right in the middle of a middle class neighborhood with children playing all around.
This I have seen many times on my way to the local market, next to this mosque and across from the brothel….the same few chinese women always with different men.
@Ahmed:
Good one there Dude! I mean the Police and Prostitution. I mean they go together, like eating and farting.
who so ever wrote this post, he is very true… it is happening in our whole society not just few cities… it is running every where in Pakistan.
They are the god fathers of all crimes. There is a price to enter into police force. The present lot must be dismantled and new recruitment on merit must be taken care of. They are the root cause of 90% crimes in the country. One hardly finds a friendly policeman in our country.