LAHORE, June 21: Putting behind reported rising crimes and alleged encounter tales, the chief minister, his party MPAs and PML-Q dissidents were all praise for Punjab police on Tuesday only to counter a fierce onslaught on the force by opposition for their “failure to maintain law and order”.

In the presence of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif in the Punjab Assembly, Law Minister Rana Sanaullah refused to concede that the police were involved in ‘extra-judicial killing’. Former inspectors general (IGs) Shaukat Javed and Tariq Saleem Dogar and incumbent Javed Iqbal also got titles of “sipasalaar” or military commander from Mr Sharif.

Opposition members presented a cut-motion, demanding that the police should not be given a grant of Rs52.1 billion for 2011-12 for their failure to control terrorism, blasts, poor law and order situation and increasing crimes in the province.

PML-Q’s Amna Ulfat said the police instead of protecting the lives of citizens were providing a “shelter to criminals”. She said there had been a substantial increase in “police encounters” in recent times as the chief minister was treating the cops as “Egyptian slaves”.

Q’s parliamentary leader Chaudhry Zaheeruddin said that 877 people had been kidnapped for ransom in the last six months showing how “profitable business” it had become in the tenure of Shahbaz Sharif.

Sardar Mohsin Leghari suggested to the chief minister, who made his rare appearance in the house, to plan a special force like the border military police to combat terrorism. Amir Sultan Cheema said they had no objection to grants if the police improved their performance.

PPP’s Makhdoom Irtaza alleged district police officers (DPOs) were doing their own style of justice at police stations. “FIRs are only registered on the order of a DPO,” he added.

Defending his department, Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said a constable performing a 24-hour job against a meagre Rs16,850 salary should be given his due.

“We have lost a number of policemen in terror incidents in the province, but there has been not a single incident in which a cop refused to perform duty,” he said.

He said the total strength of the Punjab police was 177,000 and Rs52.1 billion allocations for the Police Department were insufficient. He said the police had arrested 96,000 proclaimed offenders last year, of them 59 carrying heavy head prices.

“We also have a strict accountability system as 59,000 policemen were punished,” he said.

On terrorism front, he said, 237 terrorists had been given capital punishment and 295 life imprisonment by courts.

“Those facing death sentence could not be executed as stay has been granted from the presidency,” he said.

The law minister, who also has been accused of his opponents getting killed in encounters in Faisalabad, severely targeted those targeting extra-judicial killings.

“There has been a lot of hue and cry over police encounters. I am not going to defend them, but the statistics tell a different story. From July 2010 to May 2011, 262 encounters took place in which 30 police officials got killed and 66 injured while 145 criminals were killed and 319 arrested,” he said, adding it was wrong to say that only criminals were killed in encounters.

He, however, held the military dictators responsible for the “present law and order situation”.

Mr Sharif on a point of order praised some suggestions by the opposition members but he largely remained focused on “honest officials” in the Police Department.

“The dacoits in police uniform and retired police officers were posted in the field in previous regimes that resulted in increase in the crime rate,” he said, adding that the Bank of Punjab was robbed of Rs75 billion and the NICL of Rs6 billion,which encouraged criminals to follow the suit.

“My government has given field posting to honest and hard working officials and only honest and competent officers have been appointed sipasalaars (police chiefs) since we came to power,” he said. He said every effort was being made for the protection of life and property of the people and maintenance of law and order.

The chief minister refuted the allegation that corrupt officers who were removed had again made their comeback to field posts.

The house approved grants 2011-12 (Rs52.1 billion) for police after voting.

The opposition also presented two more motions against demands for grants for 2011-12 for health (Rs26.4 billion) and education (Rs25.6 million) which were dismissed and the grants were approved.

MPAs Rai Shah Jehan, Dr Samia Amjad, Sajida Mir, Dr Faiza Asghar, Dr Malik Akhtar and Azma Bokhari raised objections to health policies. They questioned as why three medical colleges in Punjab were functional without the approval of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council and that why polio cases were on the rise in the province.

Azma Bokhari ‘requested’ the chief minister to make Dr Saeed Elahi a “fully-fledged” health minister. “As Mr Elahi is doing excellent work as parliamentary secretary on health, he should be considered for the health ministry,” she said.

Malik Nosher Khan, Seemal Kamran and Azma Bokhari also castigated the government for its “ill priorities” in the education sector.

Dr Elahi and Education Minister Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman responded them in health and education observations.

Opposition Leader Raja Riaz again on Tuesday raised the issue of hurling death threats on Ms Bokhari by Mr Sanaullah. The minister said he had not hurled any threat to her through any journalist. Ms Bokhari insisted that he did so through a “group of journalists”. The law minister asked the opposition leader to form a committee to probe the incident.

The house also offered fateha for Benazir Bhutto in connection with her birth anniversary.