Punjab security: PM clears plan to hire 2,000 men for anti-terror unit
Personnel will receive training from Punjab Elite School.
PM clears plan to hire 2,000 men for anti-terror unit. PHOTO: FILE
LAHORE:
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has approved a plan by the Punjab government to recruit around 2,000 personnel as part of the new Counter-Terrorism Force (CTF) in the province, The Express Tribune has learnt.
The premier reviewed the follow-up reports on the CTF proposal while presiding over a high-level meeting at Jati Umra, Raiwind on Saturday. He was briefed on progress over the plan by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Inspector General (IG) Khan Baig, the home secretary and other senior provincial government officials.
According to sources privy to the meeting, while Prime Minister Nawaz gave his go-ahead for the recruitment of 2,000 personnel for the CTF after being briefed on the matter.
They added the structure and mechanism of the CTF, as well as its status as an independent body or a police wing will be finalised by the home secretary before the next meeting.
According to the sources, most of the participants at the meeting wish to see the CTF as an independent body. But senior police officials including the IG want the new force to function as a wing of the police department.
Turkish trainers and SSG instructors
Punjab Assembly member and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Shuja Khanzada – who looks after the home department and has been assigned to replicate the Turkish police model in Punjab – shared details regarding the CTF. According to him, the CTF will be a special force tasked with conducting timely action against militants and terrorists. He said the force would be patterned along the lines of similar units in Europe and the US, and will have its own helicopter wing.
Khanzada said the government will hire around 400 instructors, mostly from Turkey and the rest from Pakistan Army and its Special Services Group, to train CTF personnel. He added the training imparted from the Turkish trainers would be significant as the latter have experience fighting the 40-year-old Kurdish insurgency inside their country. In addition to that, CTF personnel will receive a year’s training from the Punjab Elite School, he said.
The MPA said he would be part of the prime minister’s delegation during the latter’s visit to Turkey. He said he would seek the services of Turkish trainers, both for the CTF and to revamp the Punjab police department along Turkish lines, during this trip.
Additional IG Sarmad Saeed Khan provided further details regarding the proposed CTF. He said the government eventually plans to recruit around 5,000 personnel this year for the force.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 15th, 2013.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has approved a plan by the Punjab government to recruit around 2,000 personnel as part of the new Counter-Terrorism Force (CTF) in the province, The Express Tribune has learnt.
The premier reviewed the follow-up reports on the CTF proposal while presiding over a high-level meeting at Jati Umra, Raiwind on Saturday. He was briefed on progress over the plan by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Inspector General (IG) Khan Baig, the home secretary and other senior provincial government officials.
According to sources privy to the meeting, while Prime Minister Nawaz gave his go-ahead for the recruitment of 2,000 personnel for the CTF after being briefed on the matter.
They added the structure and mechanism of the CTF, as well as its status as an independent body or a police wing will be finalised by the home secretary before the next meeting.
According to the sources, most of the participants at the meeting wish to see the CTF as an independent body. But senior police officials including the IG want the new force to function as a wing of the police department.
Turkish trainers and SSG instructors
Punjab Assembly member and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Shuja Khanzada – who looks after the home department and has been assigned to replicate the Turkish police model in Punjab – shared details regarding the CTF. According to him, the CTF will be a special force tasked with conducting timely action against militants and terrorists. He said the force would be patterned along the lines of similar units in Europe and the US, and will have its own helicopter wing.
Khanzada said the government will hire around 400 instructors, mostly from Turkey and the rest from Pakistan Army and its Special Services Group, to train CTF personnel. He added the training imparted from the Turkish trainers would be significant as the latter have experience fighting the 40-year-old Kurdish insurgency inside their country. In addition to that, CTF personnel will receive a year’s training from the Punjab Elite School, he said.
The MPA said he would be part of the prime minister’s delegation during the latter’s visit to Turkey. He said he would seek the services of Turkish trainers, both for the CTF and to revamp the Punjab police department along Turkish lines, during this trip.
Additional IG Sarmad Saeed Khan provided further details regarding the proposed CTF. He said the government eventually plans to recruit around 5,000 personnel this year for the force.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 15th, 2013.