Civil Secretariat: Visitor restrictions, bigger police presence

Chief Secretary Nasir Mehmood Khosa had warned senior officials and police that there could not be a repeat.


Our Correspondent May 20, 2012

LAHORE:


The Civil Secretariat administration and the police have finalised a new security plan to prevent any future incident like the storming of the building by Population Welfare Department employees last Wednesday.


Chief Secretary Nasir Mehmood Khosa had warned senior officials and police that there could not be a repeat. He has called a meeting of administrative secretaries for next week to give them guidelines for the settlement of employees’ complaints, an official said.

Some 3,000 Population Welfare Department stormed the Civil Secretariat last Wednesday. They clashed with police and officials, breaking doors, windows, furniture and flower pots. They trashed the chief secretary’s office and beat up a friend of his who was visiting at the time. It took three hours for the police to disperse the protesters.

Under the new standing operating procedures, a number of policemen will be deployed inside and along the boundary wall of the secretariat during the day. Barbed wire has been installed at all gates and walls. No more than a dozen visitors will be allowed to enter at any one time and they will not be allowed to assemble in one place. Police vehicles will patrol the secretariat.

In further fallout from the protest, the government has withdrawn the additional charge of additional chief secretary from Jalal Sikandar Sultan Raja, who was the senior most official present on the day of the incident. The additional charge has been assigned to Sohail Amer, the Housing and Public Health Engineering secretary.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 20th, 2012.

 

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