February 11, 2008	Monday	Safar 03, 1429

FAISALABAD, Feb 10: The regional police have been given a target to collect Rs10 million for ‘police welfare’ by selling calendars, Dawn learnt on Sunday.

Regional Police Officer (RPO) Talat Mahmood in collaboration with the Citizen Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) chief got printed thousands of New Year calendars and tasked all police stations with collecting Rs10 million by selling these calendars.

City areas police stations were asked to achieve the target as soon as possible, but officials of rural area police stations were given no deadline.

The ‘official’ price of a calendar is Rs200, but policemen are selling it on higher rates. People visiting police stations are being forced to buy the calendar before seeking any help.

Dawn obtained quotes from different printers to know the printing cost of the calendars being sold by policemen. The highest cost of the calendar was quoted Rs9.49.

This correspondent visited several police stations and learnt these calendars were in custody of moharrars. They force visitors to buy calendars before they can state their problem or purpose of the visit.

A moharrar, on condition of anonymity, said senior police officers had turned the police stations into shops and moharrars into shopkeepers. He said visitors of the accused detained in lockups were the customers of the calendars.

He said police employees were after innocent people instead of criminals to achieve the target. All mobile officers, motorcycle squads and others have also been given calendars to achieve the target, he added.

A shopkeeper at the general bus stand said they were asked by the administrator of the stand to buy the calendar or they would be fined. He said scores of poor cart-pushers were also forced to buy the calendars.

Insiders said that the money minting through selling something was first introduced by former district police officer Zafar Abbas Lak five years ago. Mr Lak launched a police employees’ residential colony in collaboration with a local industrialist and ordered all police employees to buy the forms of the colony.

This time officials turned the cannons towards the public.

Talking to Dawn, the RPO said he had nothing to do with such instructions and CPLC officials were handling all such matters. He chose not to respond when asked CPLC officials could not force police stations to carry the task.

CPLC Chief Arif Surriya said calendars were being sold at police stations with the consent of the RPO and the money collected through calendars would be spent on the welfare of police. He said nobody was asked to sell the calendars by force and Rs200 was a donation and not the price of the calendar.