LAHORE: Newly appointed Punjab DIG Traffic Sohail Akhtar Sukhera has transferred and closed the two DSPs to the headquarters and suspended from service 18 police officials, including traffic wardens, on the corruption charges on Saturday.

He also appointed an SSP-ranked woman police officer as an inquiry officer to launch a departmental action against the ‘guilty officials’.

The action was taken in light of the reports of various vigilance teams, which were dispatched to the field on the directions of Inspector General of Police Rao Sardar Ali Khan.

The Punjab government had recently issued directions to the IGP and the DIG traffic to focus the corruption complaints surfacing in the traffic police to ensure public service delivery and transparency in issuing driving licenses.

The Punjab DIG traffic said that as per directions of the IGP, the process of issuing licenses was being made transparent and more convenient for the citizens so that they could avail the service without any hassle. He said the vigilance teams were conducting surprise visits to the traffic licensing branches in the districts to monitor implementation of the standard operating procedures (SOPs).

Mr Sukhera added that a warning had been circulated that there was no place for the corrupt officers or officials in police and such black sheep would be expelled from the department. He directed the chief traffic officers to expedite the surprise visits to traffic licensing branches in their districts and ensure implementation of all the SOPs, including rotation policy.

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2021