LAHORE: The Punjab police have put on guard nearly 450 armed police personnel besides Elite Force commandos at the five residences and offices of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz in Lahore.

The security has been enhanced after Shehbaz Sharif and Hamza Shehbaz have been elected prime minister and chief minister, respectively. Shehbaz has declared his residence at Model Town “PM’s Camp Office”.

The residences and offices where the police guards have been deployed and the patrolling enhanced are Jati Umra (residence), 180-H, Model Town (party office), 96-H, Model Town (PM’s Camp Office), Judicial Employees Cooperative Society (Hamza Shahbaz’s residence) and A Block of Defence Housing Authority (Shahbaz’s residence).

An official told Dawn that the security branch of Lahore had revised the security level of the PM and the CM following the recent agitation movement of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).

He said the Lahore police higher-ups took no chance and immediately heightened the security.

450 personnel deployed at five residences, offices

The official said a requisition was sent by the security branch wing to the Lahore police chief to spare the police personnel from the police lines to make their deployment in three shifts besides vans with elite police commandos. A superintendent of police of the security branch was assigned the task to supervise the entire security measures.

Special focus was ordered for 96-H, Model Town, which has been declared camp office of the prime minister. As many as 89 trained armed police personnel had been put on guard at the office, he said. The elite police commandos with special vans and two lady police constables have also been deployed in addition to the other police force.

Similarly, 91 police personnel have been deployed at 180-H, Model Town, party office of the PML-N. Two elite police vans have been spared ‘permanently’ for patrolling and static duties at the same office, the police official said.

The Judicial Employees Cooperative Society has Hamza’s home where 87 police personnel have been deputed. For the PM’s residence at A Block of DHA, 28 police personnel have been deployed while 140 police personnel will be on duty in three shifts at Jati Umra.

The official said the security would also be revised at the Punjab Chief Minister’s offices on The Mall. He claimed that the number of police personnel deployed at the offices and residences of the Sharif family was 60 per cent less than that reported during the previous tenure of Shehbaz Sharif as chief minister.

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2022