Top bureaucrat moves to end power tussle

CS directs civil administration to enhance cooperation with police

LAHORE: In an unprecedented move to do away with the power tussle between the police and the civil administration and to ensure both sides work in harmony, Punjab Chief Secretary Major (retd) Azam Suleman Khan conducted his first field visit to Gujranwala, along with Inspector General of Police Shoaib Dastgir.

He presided over a meeting of all civil and police officers of the division with an ambitious aim to improve coordination and synergy between civil administration and police for resolution of public grievances.

Previously many administrative issues were faced by the civil administrations due to the non-cooperation of police and vice versa. Anti-encroachment operations were the prime sufferers of this feud. Operations launched by district administrations were many times not supported by police administration, to undermine the former’s authority, forcing the district administration to halt such operations mid-way fearing a law and order situation.

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Similarly, for clearing temporary encroachments from alongside roads, to ensure smooth flow of traffic, operations requested by traffic police were not entertained by the district administration, to undermine their authority.

Chief Secretary Punjab Major (retd) Azam Suleman Khan, earlier this month on December 6, during his first meeting with Punjab police and the civil bureaucracy, had ordered police and civil officers to work in coordination to ensure that public grievances were addressed.

Multiple instructions were also issued to police and civil officers in this regard by the chief secretary.

He then had also announced holding field visits himself along with IG Punjab to ensure that his instructions were being followed in letter and spirit. The Punjab CS was also expected to visit Faisalabad on Saturday, along with IGP for a meeting with the police and civil officers concerned.

While speaking to officers at Gujranwala, the chief secretary said officers have been given “full authority”, now it is their responsibility to work with dedication for resolving problems of the people.

He directed the deputy commissioners and district police officers to conduct joint visits of wholesale fruits and vegetable markets to get fixed prices of commodities under their direct supervision.

He urged the administrative officers to come out of their offices and check the attendance of doctors and staff in hospitals, besides monitoring stocks of medicines and their provision to patients. He also asked them to help improve the quality of education by resolve issues of schools so that the young generation could be given modern education.

He mentioned that special attention must be paid to plant maximum trees to overcome the issue of environmental pollution with the help of civil society, adding that concrete steps should be in place to improve cleanliness in cities and implement zero waste policy.

The meeting decided to launch a campaign to eliminate stray dogs and start a crackdown on wall-chalking and illegal hoardings. The chief secretary also issued instructions regarding retrieving government land and removing encroachments from graveyards.

A proposal to establish PHA at Gujranwala, Gujrat, Mandi Bhaudin and Hafizabad was also reviewed in the meeting.

Issuing directives to the police officers, the chief secretary asked them to take every possible measure for the protection of life and property of people so that they could live their lives in a peaceful atmosphere.

The meeting was briefed that 80 out of 102 development schemes of the Gujranwala Division have been approved while the work of the remaining 22 is underway.

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The meeting was attended by Senior Member Board of Revenue, Additional Chief Secretary (Home), divisional commissioner, Regional Police Officer (RPO), deputy commissioners and district police officers of Gujranwala division. The instructions given to police and civil administration earlier this month by CS in the presence IGP were to do away the power tussle going on between the two services for quite some time now.

The CS has also entrusted the task monitors the police and civil administration to special brand and Punjab Information Technology Board. Suleman Khan has been installed in Punjab Province, by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government to bring about a visible change in the governance.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 28^th, 2019.