Police protection: Elite Force to be reorganised

13th batch graduates from Bedian Elite Police Training Centre.

LAHORE:

The Elite Force of the police will be reorganised and get separate police lines in the big cities of Punjab next year, said Inspector General (IG) Javed Iqbal at the passing out ceremony for the 13th batch of the Elite Force at the Elite Police Training Centre on Bedian Road on Saturday.

Iqbal said that on the orders of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, the Elite Force would be reorganised from next year to better combat terrorism and provide security to the public. He said the chief minister had already provided the funding for the reorganisation.

The IG praised the force for their “exemplary performance” in fighting crime in the province. He said that various measures had been taken to enhance the capacity of the force. He thanked Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kiyani for extending his cooperation in the training process. He urged the jawans to serve the public with devotion and dedication. He asked them to focus their energies on the purpose for which they were trained.

The IG was told that since its inception in 1998, the force had carried out 7,961 successful operations, arrested 10,248 criminals and killed 602 hardened criminals. It had also recovered 1,120 stolen cars and Rs33,763,485 in cash and seized 8,630 kilograms of illegal drugs.

Additional IG (Training) Sarmed Saeed, Additional IG (Operations) Rafique Hasan, Additional IG (Investigation) Azam Joyia and Additional IG (Punjab Highway Police) Hamayun Raza Shafi also attended the ceremony.

Security duty

The Elite Force was formed to combat terrorism. Much of it is currently doing so by guarding VIPs, despite instructions from the chief minister that it should not be used for this purpose. Lahore Police currently has 900 Elite Force personnel, of whom around 650 are guarding important personalities.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, presiding over a meeting at the Bedian school in April 2009, said that the force should be used only to combat serious crime and not for VIP security duty. He said that rules should be made in this regard. The chief minister also said that Elite Force personnel would not perform static duties as guards. According to their standard operating procedures, Elite Force personnel are not meant to perform static duty for more than five hours, but this is routinely violated. For example, on January 17, 10 Elite Force personnel deputed with Lahore High Court Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry sought a transfer because they were being asked to perform static duty for more than five hours a day.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 15^th, 2011.