LAHORE:Inspector General of Police (IGP) Punjab Inam Ghani on Thursday said that in order to change the culture of the police station and promote public centric policing, it was necessary for the police officers and personnel to perform their duties impartially, free from any external pressure.
“For this we are going to give DDO powers to SHOs in Punjab and now DSPs or SHOs will not be posted in the circle or police station of their residential district while in the five major districts of the province like Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Gujranwala and Multan, no inspector or sub-inspector will be posted as SHO in his residential division”, he added.
He said that under this law 238 SHOs were being replaced across Punjab while DIG IT would ensure monitoring. He said that no officer with two major penalties and under trial or under investigation of criminal cases would be allowed to be posted as SHOs, whereas in future police stations only ‘A’ category officers would be posted as SHOs, he maintained.
The IGP said that police stations and police offices were the service centers for the people where solving the problems of the visitors on priority basis and providing them all possible facilities was our top priority.
He said that those responsible for any negligence or omission in the registration and investigation of criminal cases related to women and children should be prepared for stern action.
He said that steps were being taken on priority basis to improve the affairs of police stations and all the funds received by Punjab Police in the financial year 2021-22 would be spent on upgrading of police stations and provision of modern facilities, he asserted.
He expressed these views while inaugurating various projects of public service delivery in police offices and addressing the Police Darbar on the occasion of his visit to Gujranwala and inaugurating the Smart City project in Ghakhar Mandi. He also listened to the problems of the force in the Police Darbar and issued orders on the spot to resolve various issues.
IG Punjab Inam Ghani on his arrival in Gujranwala first paid salutations to the martyrs and laid a wreath of flowers and offered Fateha for martyrs. He met the families of the martyrs and inquired about their problems. He also directed CPO Gujranwala to maintain close contact with the families of the martyrs so that they do not face any inconvenience or distress. He inaugurated the Investigation Support Unit and Police Welfare Center at CPO Office, Gujranwala.
Giving instructions on the occasion, he said that no compromise could be made on the quality of police investigation and ensured transparent and speedy investigation through all means and modern technology keeping in view the requirements of modern times.
He said that it was the responsibility of the investigating officers to ensure that no innocent citizen was disturbed during the interrogation and that a smart method of interrogation was adopted to identify and trace the accused with the help of modern technology, he maintained.
At the end of the visit, IG Punjab inaugurated the important project of Smart City Ghakhar Mandi. He said that the Smart City Ghakhar project would be of special importance in monitoring and surveillance, crime control and traffic management and would help in maintaining law and order situation.