Punjab Police swirl the Home Minister who wished to change “Thana Culture”

Lahore: Provincial Minister for Home Col.(R) Shuja Khanzada has said that comprehensive and solid steps are being taken for changing traditional Thana culture and making police force people friendly. He said that such reforms are being made for organizing police department on modern lines as could make it a public service institution in real sense.

He said this during a departmental briefing at the office of Inspector General of Police, here today. Inspector General of Police Mushtaq Ahmad Sukhera, Additional IG welfare and finance Sohail Khan,AIG CTDT Muhammad Tahir,AIG PHP Javaid Islam,Commandant PC Hussain Asghar , DIG Headquarter Farooq Mazhar,DIG W& F Salman Ch,DIG Training Saad Akhtar Bharwana,AIG Finance Hussain Imtiaz Habib Gill,AIG Logistics Shariq Kamal Siddiqui,AIG Career & Planning Faisal Ali Raja,AIG Development Arslan Malik,AIG operations Romail Akram,AIG Admin & Security Sajjad Manj ,AIG Legal Qaisar Ali Sheikh and other senior officers were present on the occasion.

Shuja Khanzada said that work is continuing on the projects for changing the environment of police stations throughout the province. He said that the record management system of police is being updated on the pattern of developed countries and all out resources will be provided for this purpose. He said that police has been given free hand for eradication of crimes and ensuring protection of life and property of the people. Home Minister said that honest and dutiful police officers will be encouraged at all level and they will be provided complete patronage.

DIG Headquarters Farooq Mazhar gave a detailed briefing about the computerized record management of police stations, command and control system, model police stations, operational strategy, H.R. Position and police structure. He said that if the expenses on individual security in Pakistan and other countries are compared, it costs 7.6 dollar annually in Pakistan whereas in India 15.9 dollars, in Turkey 135 dollars and in London 754 dollars.

AIG Finance Hussain Habib Imtiaz during a briefing about the expenses and police budget told that the total number of Punjab police is one lakh 77 thousand and about 82 percent of the total budget is spent on salaries and allowances whereas only 18 percent budget is spent on petrol, utility bills, purchase of uniform, operational duties and other heads.

IG Punjab Mushtaq Ahmad Sukhera during a briefing about the steps started in police department told that for the first time 100 civilians including 20 women are being recruited in Punjab which will help to computerize the record of police stations and reduce the problems of the general public being faced in registration of complaints. He told that work has been started on computerizing the service record of police officers and officials, their history and all other details. He said that the record of ten thousand officers and officials has been computerized so far. He said that a group of 20 officers and officials will soon be sent to Turkey for the training of Dolphin police service started for controlling crime streets in Lahore. Shuja Khanzada appreciated the steps initiated in Punjab police headed by Mushtaq Ahmad Sukhera and assured his complete cooperation for further improving the performance of Punjab police, upon which IG thanked the Home Minister.

During the meeting,no officer has given recommendations for the change in police culture for what,the minister desired rather all the briefing were spinning around that the Punjab Police have a very limited resources as compare to police of other countries and they have a visible shortage of manpower that was  creating hurdles to cope with the present situation and maintaining law & order.