LAHORE, May 4: Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi has approved a police reforms programme aimed at resolving problems of people at police stations, improving police behaviour with citizens and transforming police into a people-friendly force.
The programme includes measures like establishment of special centres to ensure registration of FIRs, sanction of a monthly allowance for SHOs, recruitment of over 10,000 personnel (from constable to sub-inspector), rebuilding of police stations, introduction of double shift to reduce workload and disciplinary action in case of below-par performance.
The chief minister approved the programme recommended by a committee headed by law minister Basharat Raja while presiding over a meeting here on Thursday. The committee comprising home secretary Khusru Pervaiz Khan, IGP Ziaul Hasan and DIG Javed Noor was constituted by the chief minister last month.
According to the decisions taken at the meeting, 225 new centres would be established in the province where people could get their complaints registered in addition to the police stations.
These centres would be established in the offices of the DIG operation, SSP operation, divisional SPs, DPOs and SDPOs. A separate room has been allocated in each centre for the purpose where a legal inspector will be posted.
The chief minister said registration of an FIR was the fundamental right of every citizen, and the government would not tolerate any hindrance. A strict action would be taken against officials posted at special centres if they refused to register the FIR.
He said the performance of police officials would not be judged on the basis of the number of cases registered, but the detection of crime and arrest of criminals.
He said an action would also be taken against those lodging bogus FIRs, and the government was considering to enhance punishment for this offence from six months to two years. Proposals should be presented for amendment to the existing law, he ordered.
Pervaiz Elahi said police could not be made a people-friendly force without improving the environment and buildings of police stations. Therefore, the government had decided to provide buildings for police stations throughout the province. For the purpose, all such government buildings would be handed over to the police department where police stations were already established.
The meeting also approved new terms and conditions for the posting of SHOs. “Only those having good repute, required educational qualification and training, seniority and a clean service record would be posted as SHOs.”
The chief minister announced an extra monthly allowance of Rs15,000 for every SHO. He said the people and the government could expect better results from SHOs with the improvement of service conditions for them. Besides facing a departmental action, the SHOs showing poor performance would never be posted in the same capacity during the rest of their career.
He said the government had decided to link facilities with accountability. He directed police authorities to arrange such training courses for SHOs and staff posted at police stations which could bring positive changes in their behaviour with citizens. The subject of ethics should be at the top in their training course.
He said the SHOs showing better performance would not be transferred before the completion of their two-year tenure, and their appointment would be made on merit, disallowing any political interference in this connection.
The chief minister approved double shift for police officials in five major cities of the province, and said measures should be taken to further divide duty timings of the police force into three shifts.
He said desired results could not be expected from the officials who were on duty round the clock.
The meeting decided to post an SP in each town of the cities which had been granted the status of city district. As a result of this decision, the number of SPs in five major cities like Lahore, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Faisalabad and Multan would increase from eight to 23.
The meeting also approved the decision to depute an ASP or a DSP in each police station in the five cities as supervisory police officer.
The chief minister emphasised the importance of accountability and inspection in the police department, and said the monitoring system of police and the system of addressing complaints be improved.
He ordered that special cells of accountability and inspection should be set up in the offices of all regional heads, DIGs and DPOs, and such a system should be evolved in the department under which no official guilty of torture, corruption or misbehaviour could escape punishment.