Foreigners’ branch latest to be moved out of CCPO office

The current building is overcrowded as it houses several major police offices

LAHORE: The Foreigners Branch has been shifted from the Capital City Police Officer Lahore’s (CCPO) Office to Mozang Police station.

Usually, foreigners visiting the provincial metropolis registered themselves with the branch. It was a busy location being visited by a number of foreigners in the city.

The move was meant to reduce congestion at the CCPO office as it already caters to the activity of the Administration, Discipline and Inquiry and Legal SSPs. Residences of police officers were also situated inside the building.

The structure posed a security threat as a lot of senior police officers worked out of the office. Keeping in view, stringent security measures were in place there that caused a nuisance for visitors as they had to go through a proper Visitors Management System before entering the office.

To deal with these issues, such offices and branches were being shifted to other places.   In a similar move recently, the SP Civil Lines office was also moved from the CCPO office to Mozang police station.

The station was a newly constructed building had considerable space to spare.

Additionally, some weeks ago, Capital City Police Officer BA Nasir delegated most of his powers to subordinate deputy inspector generals and the chief traffic officer. According to the order passed by Nasir, foreigners’ registration and security branches had been shifted from the CCPO’s office to DIG Operations Lahore. Similarly, powers of general verification and issuance of police character certificates were transferred to the same office.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 14^th, 2019.