RAWALPINDI: Police have been provided new pairs of their olive green uniform this month that the Punjab government had decided to replace this June.

Police officials were given the uniform just two months before a new one, which will consist of a light blue shirt and navy trousers, will be introduced.

Police officials told Dawn that the uniforms police were given are poorly stitched and the fabric is of worse quality than the ones they were given two years ago, in 2017.

One official added: “We were only given two pairs of the olive green uniform in the two years since it was introduced, and now, when the government has been planning to change to the sky blue uniform the olive green ones have been given to the police.”

But a senior police officer said the olive uniforms had already been bought and stitched and were to be used until the new uniforms are given to the force. He said police personnel receive two uniforms every year.

Since the olive green uniforms were introduced by the Punjab police in July 2017, they were heavily criticised within and outside the force. This led to the constitution of a seven-member committee by then inspector general of police Arif Nawaz Khan to survey and analyse the response to the uniform.

Some quarters had expressed reservations about the old uniforms, believing them to be too similar to the uniforms of paramilitary forces. They said police uniforms should be a distinctive colour. Some senior officers had said wearing the uniforms was a miserable experience, especially out in the field in the summer.

The olive green uniform consists of a shirt with two pockets, trousers with four pockets and a cap, and cost Rs1,950.

Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2019