Punjab Minister for Law, Parliamentary Affairs and Social Welfare Raja Basharat has said that Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Bazdar had taken significant steps to change the culture at police stations across Punjab.
He was addressing a review meeting on the performance of the police department held at Civil Secretariat under his chairmanship here on Wednesday. Punjab IG Police Inam Ghani briefed the participants while Additional Chief Secretary Home, Secretary Prosecution and other officers were also present on the occasion. Raja Basharat said that according to the vision of PTI, the establishment of Additional IG’s office in South Punjab is an important achievement of the Punjab government which was saving the people of South Punjab from a long journey to Lahore. He said that with the introduction of daily fixed allowance and executive allowance to the police personnel, their salaries have increased significantly.
The Law Minister said that despite financial difficulties, Punjab Police was provided 568 new vehicles, government land was allotted for 7 police station buildings and additional funds were provided for completion of 37 police station buildings. He said that more than Rs. 142 millions had been provided for the improvement of the investigative system while the Chief Minister had also approved recruitment for an additional 6829 vacancies to meet the shortage of personnel.
He said that on the direction of the Chief Minister, separate counters would be set up for women in urban police stations while the old laws and rules were being updated with necessary amendments to improve the efficiency of the police.
The IG while giving a briefing said that this year, about 4 lakh citizens had benefited from 118 police service centers. He said that the system of Police Helpline 15 had been made centralized for better monitoring and comparison of crimes. The grievance cell is being further strengthened to address the problems of overseas Pakistanis at the grassroots level and highway patrol police had been started on 14 more roads in the province.
The law minister assured that other police issues, including budget shortfalls, would be addressed on a priority basis.
