LAHORE: The Cabinet Committee on Tuesday accorded approval to creation of 704 positions (BS-9) for Dolphin Squad, and gave the go-ahead to replicate the force in five districts -- Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Multan, Sargodha and Faisalabad.

A decision to the effect was taken in a meeting of the committee held at the Chief Minister’s House, Model Town, an official privy to the information told Dawn.

He said the Tuesday’s ‘interesting’ development in the meeting was the introduction of Punjab Police Training Additional Inspector General Usman Khattak as new acting IG Punjab.

On Monday, he said, there were rumours that Establishment Additional IG Police retired Capt Arif Nawaz had assumed additional charge of acting IGP.

Cabinet panel approves 704 slots

However, the committee was informed that according to the notification issued by the S&GAD, Mr Khattak was holding this assignment. It was the first meeting of Mr Khattak as acting IGP, he said.

Special Protection Unit (SPU) DIG Faisal Ali Rana and other senior police officers also attended the meeting which was chaired by Special Education Minister Chaudhry Mohammad Shafiq on behalf of the chief minister.

The official said the meeting was told that the Dolphin Force had exhibited good performance in Lahore during one year of its establishment.

The idea was derived from the Turkish force having the same name during a visit of a delegation of the Punjab officers to Turkey.

The force was formed in April 2016 and an amount of Rs2 billion was spent on the establishment of mega infrastructure in Lahore that included seven buildings, logistics and human resource, the meeting was told.

Some 689 positions had been created in Lahore for the force with a sole purpose of making intensive patrol, crime prevention and quick response to Rescue 15 calls.

The force was equipped with modern gadgets and trendy heavy bikes.

On finding the ‘desired’ results, the cabinet committee approved replication of the force in five districts. He said the Punjab government had decided to recruit ‘fresh blood.’

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2017