LAHORE: Inspector General of Police retired Captain Arif Nawaz Khan has directed the police officers to make sure implementation of the recommendations of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) regarding protection of rights of the minor children who were in custody.

He also asked the officers to fully cooperate with the HRCP in all other matters related to police across the province.

The IGP issued these instructions during a meeting with four-member delegation of the HRCP at Central Police Office on Thursday.

The delegation included council members of the HRCP, Nazish Attaullah, Nadeem Anthony, Asad Jamal and Tahira Habeeb.

During the meeting, issues of the families, especially children of prisoners along with mutual interests were discussed.

The IGP said the directions defined in the Juvenile Justice System Act 2018 regarding cases of children involved in criminal activities should be followed. He also assured the delegation the police would see the matters of children of prisoners in accordance sympathetically in accordance with the law.

In order to make better coordination and working of Punjab Police with the HRCP, a focal person from police had been nominated so that matters should be resolved quickly with the help of a close coordination between the commission and police.

The HRCP delegation apprised the IG Punjab about problems of families of prisoners and issues of juveniles in police custody.

During the meeting, mutual steps for resolving complaints received by the HRCP were deeply examined.

PM’s adviser: Zulfiqar Bukhari, the special adviser to the prime minister, on Thursday visited the Central Police Office and saw the examined projects initiated by Punjab Police regarding public service delivery.

Inspector General of Punjab Police retired Capt Arif Nawaz Khan briefed Mr Bukhari on operational strategy of the police and new projects of public service delivery.

According to a handout, the IGP also briefed him on many new initiatives taken by his department to resolve public issues. Some projects of public service delivery, included Police Khidmat Marakiz, 8787 IGP Complaint Management System, Khidmat counters at hospitals, mobile khidmat marakaz and the Safe City project.

He told Mr Bukhari that the police had established specialised forces like Dolphin, CTD, Special Protection Unit, Anti Riot Unit, Special Operation Unit regarding modern policing.

Mr Bukhari also visited the IGP complaint cell 8787 where Assistant Inspector General (complaints) Zahid Nawaz briefed him on working of the cell.

During a briefing, Mr Nawaz said 8787 complaint system had resolved thousands of public complaints regarding different issues. He added that the system was also redressing the complaints received from the Prime Minister Citizen Portal on a priority basis.

During a visit to monitoring room, DIG IT Zulfiqar Hameed briefed Mr Bukhari about inter-province border surveillance system, Criminal Record Management System (CRO), Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS), Front Desk, Monitoring system of SHO rooms and Lock ups.

Zulfiqar Bukhari along with the IGP Punjab visited the Safe City Headquarters at Qurban Lines where MD Authority Additional IGP Ali Aamir Malik and Chief Operating Officer DIG Akbar Nasir Khan briefed him on the working of safe city project.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2019