RAWALPINDI: Punjab Law Minister Mohammad Basharat Raja said on Sunday that the government was working to make amendments to Police Order 2002 to make the force people friendly.

“The government is bringing new reforms to improve the police working and bridge the gap between the police and the citizens,” he said while chairing a meeting on law and order held at the office of the city police officer (CPO) Rawalpindi.

CPO Abbas Ahsan, SSP investigations Syed Ali Akbar, Chief Traffic Officer Mohammad Bin Ashraf and other senior police officials attended the meeting.

Says govt is bringing reforms to improve police working and bridge gap between the force and citizens

The minister asked the police officers to improve working of the front desks established in the police stations to facilitate crime victims and utilise all resources to address public problems on a priority basis.

He also directed the police to activate reconciliatory committees, comprising notables and political figures, at the police station level. It will improve governance and help bring police and public closer to resolve neighbourhood problems at the community level and prevent crime, he said.

The minister also directed the police officers to hold open katcheries in their respective areas to address public problems. He asked the police to expedite crackdowns against criminals, especially drug peddlers and illegal weapons.

The minister expressed satisfaction over the police fight against crimes but asked them to improve working and change their attitude towards the citizens.

The chief traffic officer was told to chalk out a strategy to improve the traffic movement in the garrison city as public complaints were increasing against gridlocks.

The CPO briefed the minister about the crime situation and efforts being made by the police to arrest criminals. He said steps were being taken to improve the efficiency of the police.

Earlier, glitches in data entry had forced the police to maintain manual record of cases in the police stations.

Observing the lack of interest in police working, especially after establishing the computerised front desks, the regional police officer had directed the police to maintain manual daily diary (roznamcha) at all the police stations as computerised record was not safe due to the fear of hacking.

Since the online computerised record keeping and data entry was introduced in the police department, the police had stopped maintaining the daily diary (roznamcha) manually.

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2019