Basharat reviews police performance

LAHORE:Provincial Minister for Law, Parliamentary Affairs and Social Welfare Raja Basharat has said Chief Minister Sardar Usman Bazdar has taken significant steps to change the culture of police stations in Punjab.

He stated this while chairing a meeting held to review performance of the Police Department at the Civil Secretariat on Wednesday. Raja Basharat said despite financial difficulties, 568 new vehicles were provided to Punjab Police and government land was allotted for seven police station buildings.

He said additional funds were provided for completion of 37 police station buildings. He said more than Rs142 million had been provided for the improvement of the investigative system while the chief minister had also approved recruitment on additional 6,829 vacancies to meet the shortage of personnel. He said 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.

Briefing the meeting, the inspector general of police Punjab said that in the current year, about 400,000 citizens benefited from 118 police service centres.

He said that the system of Police Helpline 15 had been made centralised for better monitoring and comparison of crime incidents.

The grievance cell is being further strengthened to address the problems of overseas Pakistanis at the grassroots level and Punjab Highway Patrol had been deputed 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.