LAHORE, May 23: Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi on Tuesday expressed dissatisfaction over the performance of the police which, he said, had not shown a visible improvement compared to the resources given to them.

“The law and order must be improved,” he said while presiding over a meeting held to review performance of the police here at the Civil Secretariat. He stressed the need for greater efforts by the police department so that people could see a positive change in their functioning.

The meeting was attended by the district police officers from all over the province. Chief Secretary Salman Siddique, IGP Ziaul Hassan, home secretary and other senior officers were also present.

The chief minister directed the IGP to start recruiting the additional force to launch the double shift system in five major cities of the province and announced that an additional monthly allowance of Rs2,000 would be given to each police constable from July 1.

He ordered the constitution of a monitoring committee to be headed by the IGP to evaluate efficiency of the district police officers. The committee would submit its report to the chief minister on a monthly basis regarding the crime rate in various districts and the police efforts to curb it.

He directed all DPOs to hold open kutcheries in their respective districts after every 10 days and review the police performance in the presence of the general public and their elected representatives. These meetings would also help restore confidence of people in the police department.

He said the crime charts of every district should be based on facts, as proper strategy to fight crime could not be devised without having correct data. He expressed his displeasure over the fact that despite his clear instructions, facts and figures received from some districts did not prove true on verification by other sources.

He ordered immediate removal of the Okara DPO because of his dissatisfactory performance. The officer was made an OSD soon afterwards.

The chief minister said the drive against cattle lifters had also not yielded satisfactory results. He should be apprised of complete details of the recovery of the stolen cattle and their return to the legitimate owners on a monthly basis, he said, adding these figures should also be made public through the media.

He underscored the need for freely registering FIRs and said the performance of police officials would be evaluated on the basis of arrests of criminals and curbing activities of the anti-social elements rather than the number of FIRs registered in their respective areas.

Pervaiz Elahi ordered improvement in the monitoring system of police stations and said he, along with the IGP, would conduct surprise visits of various districts to check efficiency of the police. The desired results, he said, could not be achieved at the police station level unless senior officers became active.

The chief minister said all necessary resources had been provided by the government for the improvement of the police image and now it was their responsibility to make all-out efforts to protect the public life and property.

He said inspection of police stations should be made more effective and the DPOs should set their schedule of working in such a manner that grievances of people could be redressed.

He reviewed the system of recruitment of 6,000 traffic wardens in the province and said the process should be transparent and based on merit. Due emphasis should be laid on the early completion of the training of the wardens so that they could assume their responsibilities in five major cities, he added.

The IGP said 238 patrol posts were being set up in the province in the first phase. Out of them, 198 posts had been computerised and made operational while 212 would be completed in the second phase by June 2007.