Punjab police to conduct third-party audit

Force has also decided to establish a global portal to offer services to Pakistanis living abroad

LAHORE: Punjab police have decided to conduct a third-party audit of their performance and signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and Harvard University for this purpose.

The audit will cover all service centres, front desks and several other areas of the force’s operation. The police have also decided to establish a global portal for issuing character certificates, apart from seven other services, to Pakistanis living abroad.

Citizens living abroad will be able to avail these facilities by visiting the Pakistani embassy. Speaking to The Express Tribune, Punjab Additional IG Operations Inaam Ghani stated that the objective behind conducting a third-party audit was to examine the public’s satisfaction with regards to services and to learn about how they could be improved.

“Punjab police have set up services centres, as well as mobile service centres, in all 36 districts of the province,” he maintained. These centres are offering 14 different types of facilities to the public, including issuing character certificates, driving licenses and registration of tenants, he said.

Owing to the efforts of Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) Arif Nawaz, the service centre system has been centralised. “Now, a man sitting in Bhakkar can obtain the copy of an FIR registered in Lahore,” he said.

Previously, citizens living in another district were required to visit their native one to collect character certificates. With the new system, a person living in Lahore can obtain a character certificate from Bahawalpur without having to endure hours of travelling, he said.

He added that the third-party audit will not just be conducted once, but will be repeated to improve service delivery.

Ghani said that local Pakistanis, along with those based in other countries, will be able to reap the benefits of the services being provided.

Seven facilities, based along the model of police service centres, will be offered to Pakistanis living abroad and a separate global portal is being created for this purpose. Over three million people have benefitted from the facilities being provided at police service centres.

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