Policemen unhappy with uniforms they get

Policemen complain about the poor quality of uniforms and of certain items not being available at all.

LAHORE:

Many police officials are getting their uniforms stitched from the market complaining that the poor quality of uniforms provided by the department leaves them no option. There are complaints also of certain items not being available at all.

Several police officials told The Express Tribune that the cloth used for the trousers and shirts was of very poor quality.

An official at the Qila Gujjar Singh police station speaking on condition of anonymity said that on one hand senior officials required them to look tidy and neat all the time, and on the other the quality of the uniforms they got was so poor that it did not even last two washes.

He said he had had to purchase cloth from the market and get a uniform stitched for himself because all three pair of trousers and shirts were unfit for use.

The police department, he said, had engaged a private contractor and paid him Rs130 for stitching a pair of trousers and Rs70 for a shirt.

An official at the Capital City Police Officer’s office said his buttons on his shirt had come off after the very first use. Stitching quality, he said, was very poor.

“What else can you expect for the amount the department is paying them?” he asked. He said a neighbourhood tailor had charged him Rs500 to stitch a pair of trousers and a shirt.

A sub inspector at the Police Lines said only rarely was the uniform provided by the department a good fit. He said the five tailors at the Police Lines were always busy altering the sizes for the rest. In most cases, one had to wait for several days to avail of their services.

The shoes, he said, were meant to be used for more than 12 hours a day but they were worn out in a month. “They seemed fine when I got them. After a few days the seam started opening up and in less than a month’s time they were quite useless,” he said.

The police department provides three pair of trousers and shirts every year, a jacket every five years and a pair of shoes every three years to at least 24,000 constables and head constables, 3,000 assistant sub inspectors and 1,600 sub Inspectors posted in Lahore.

This year, the CPO store got 70,000 uniforms (the requirement is estimated at 85,000); 3,940 pair of shoes for constables and head constables and 2181 for ASIs and SIs; and 3,151 jackets.

Several officials said they were deprived of a jacket and a pair of shoes because by the time they reached the store it had already run out of stock. Some of them alleged that the officials in charge of the CPO stores gave jackets and shoes only to close associates and favourites.

The officials however rejected the allegations, saying that they got a limited number of shoes and jackets. They insisted that they gave out the items on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Additional Inspector General (Logistics) Fawad Quershi told The Tribune he had recently taken charge of the post and was not updated on the matter. He said cloth for uniforms was bought during AIG Sultan Ahmad’s tenure.

However, he said there had been no complaints lodged throughout the year. “Had there been an issue, the SP (headquarters) should have approached me,” he said.

SP (headquarters) Munir Ahmed Rao said he had not received any complaints in this regard. AIG Ahmad was not available for comment.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 13^th, 2011.