LAHORE: Inspector General of Police Arif Nawaz Khan has reprimanded Lahore police for poor performance and directed the city’s police authorities to address issues to bring about improvement.

He has given a deadline of Sept 1 to the capital city police officer (CCPO) and the regional police officers (RPOs) of Punjab for cleanliness and renovation of all the police stations.

While presiding over a meeting at the Central Police Office (CPO) on Tuesday, the IGP showed displeasure over the incident of overloading of the accused in police vans and the poor cleanliness situation in police stations of Lahore.

He said a departmental action without any delay and leniency should be taken against the police officials responsible for mismanagement in this regard.

Mr Khan directed the field police officers, including the CCPO, RPOs, DPOs and SPs, to pay surprise visits to the police stations to review arrangements. During their visits, he added, the officers should check staff attendance and performance of the police personnel and brief them on the standard operating procedures issued by the CPO to improve performance. He directed the officers to write down their visit details in the record books.

The IGP said after Sept 1, he would personally inspect police stations across the province, including the provincial capital, to check cleanliness and paintwork of the police stations.

“In case I found incomplete record and bad cleanliness, the officers held guilty will have to face strict departmental action,” said Mr Khan.

He also directed them to speed up the crackdown against the drug peddlers who were spoiling the youth and share the weekly report of the crackdown with the CPO.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2019