An elite police force or a protocol wing?

It seems that prime responsibility of the force is only to escort political leadership of province to safety

Thousands of Elite Force officials are still being deployed with VIPs and their families across Punjab, despite the interior ministry’s tall claims that hundreds of security personnel deployed with non-entitled persons, or doing household duties with the VIPs during the rule of the previous government, have been withdrawn and are now posted on operational duties. Currently, out of 5,700 officials of the Punjab Elite Force, some 4,000 are performing security duties with VIPs and their families, including the prime minister, chief minister, judges, bureaucrats and other powerful individuals.

Commandos of the Elite Force are not only restricted to Lahore but are also sent to other districts of Punjab for protocol purposes. They are deployed at the residences of leading political leaders in Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan, Rawalpindi, Sargodha, Sahiwal and other districts of Punjab. More than 500 officials are providing security to the Sharif family alone, and over 350 are at the disposal of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. Around 72 per cent of the total Elite Force in Lahore has been deployed with VIPs to provide them foolproof security, according to data collected from the home department.

As soon as the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Punjab, Mushtaq Ahmad Sukhera resumed office, he had ordered that police commandos deployed on the security of VIPs will be withdrawn so that they could be deputed to perform operational duties. But unfortunately, the IGP was forced to take a U-turn and asked the officers in the field to deploy elite commandos with VIPs for security duties. Majority of the lower staff that had been withdrawn earlier from the residents of a few retired and some serving officers are again deployed with them.

Protocol duties are a fatal blow to the prestige of the Elite Force in the province. Its officers are trained so that they can attain the highest degree of skills in using firearms, in personal combat and for reconnaissance missions. The Elite Force is a vigorous police wing which was established in 1998 to counter terrorism, carry out special operations against hardened criminals and to assist the district police in situations which required expertise with high-risk searches, raids and rescue operations. But unfortunately, it has been put at the disposal of the provincial leadership, which is using it only as a protocol division. It seems that the prime responsibility of this well-trained force is only to escort the political leadership of the province to safety.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 12^th, 2015.