17 February 2004	Tuesday	25 Zilhaj 1424

KOHAT, Feb 16: The government has no reservations over the Police Ordinance, 2002, and it will leave no stone unturned to eliminate corruption and misuse of authority by the police personnel, ensuring respect and justice for the people, says NWFP Chief minister Akram Khan Durrani.

He was speaking during the inaugural session of a two-day seminar on 'human rights and policing,' organised by the NWFP police in collaboration with the federal law ministry.

Mr Durrani, while expressing great regard for uniforms, said that it were police officers themselves who stoop so low as to accept bribes as Rs10, adding they (police officials) were least bothered about gaining or losing the people's respect.

Regretting that the police did not care about the poor while smugglers, kidnappers and drug-sellers command undue respect of the police, painting a very sorry picture of the department.

Stressing the need for making police more people-friendly, he said that the government would provide Rs700,000 for every police station for fuel and maintenance annually which would be spent with the consent of the public safety commissions.

He said he had requested the prime minister to immediately provide additional force of 15,000 jawans to the province against the need of 30,000, enabling the department to perform its duty in an efficient manner.

He said that 5,000 posts would be filled during the current year while the remaining 10,000 would be filled in the next few years. Other speakers termed low salaries, lack of modern training and education of the police staff and the flawed justice system as main reasons behind the aggressiveness of the law enforcing personnel.