Poor advertisement results in dour town hall

Top police and district administration officials skip out on town meeting

RAWALPINDI: The experiment to hold town hall (open kutchery) between police officers and citizens has received a lukewarm response from the public, ostensibly because of poor publicity of the event, officials said.

On directions from the Punjab government, a town hall was arranged at the Police Lines in Rawalpindi on Friday. The event was supposed to see the Rawalpindi City Police Officer (CPO) Abbas Ahsan along with the deputy commissioner sit and hear complaints of the public.

However, the CPO and the deputy commissioner did not show up at the event and the Operations-SSP Abdul Qadir Qamar of the police had to field complaints from the citizens who made it.

Later, the additional deputy commissioner also joined the town hall. Due to insufficient publicity, around 10-12 complainants could be seen posing questions in the large hall. Some police personnel in plain clothes were also seen sitting in the hall.

After listening to their complaints, the Operations SSP issued directives to the concerned authorities under his jurisdiction to resolve matters.

Later, Operations SSP Qamar explained that Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and the Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) Amjad Javed Saleemi were visiting the city and CPO Ahsan and the deputy commissioner had been called away to see them off. This is why he conducted the town hall session.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 26^th, 2019.