Murree to get status upgrade

Hill station to get two new police stations

RAWALPINDI:

Murree will get a status upgrade from a tehsil to a sub-district while the number of police stations will be increased to three, member of provincial assembly (MPA) from the hill station told The Express Tribune on Saturday.

According to PTI MPA Sadaqat Abbasi, the motorcycle-mounted Dolphin Force will patrol Murree in December during the peak winter season for tourists.

The status of the Dolphin Force will be of a Peace Force and it will be tasked to protect tourists and ensure peace at the hill station, he said.

The provincial government has already started the paperwork for the administrative up-gradation of Murree, Abbasi said adding that under the new system, a senior officer of superintendent police will also be deployed in the sub-district along with Assistant Commissioner (AC), Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC), and an ASP.

Abbasi said that Murree had expanded from the quaint mountain town of the yore where there was negligible crime rate. Though , feuds among local clans would run for generations, crimes against tourists like harassment and snatching were unheard of, he said.

However, with changing times, the need for policing has also increased. Therefore, two new police stations are being set up with deployment of staff. The new precincts in the sub-district would be Phagwari police station and Patriyata police station to oversee the rural belt. Murree City police station would oversee the law and order in the urban belt, Abbasi said.

The lawmaker said Civil Defence Department (CDD) workers would also be deployed to ensure protection of the visitors.

He said that demarcation of the jurisdiction of the new police stations has begun after issuance of the notification while the Punjab police top command has approved the deployment of the Dolphin Force. Abbasi said that the notification for declaring Murree a sub-district would be issued soon as well.

Kohsar University to offer Bs, Ms programmes

Kohsar University Murree, set to commence classes in February next year, will be offering Bs and Ms programmes only in multiple subjects. There will be no two year degree programme, which has been declared illegal by the Higher Education Commission (HEC), MPA Abbasi said.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 29^th, 2020.