Up a notch: Security procedures at civil secretariat tightened but loopholes remain

All visitors and employees to be frisked at the entrance.

LAHORE: Security at the civil secretariat and other offices of the provincial government has been enhanced following terror threats. The civil secretariat’s administration and the police have finalised a new security plan for the buildings making it mandatory for visitors and government employees to establish their identity at the entrance.

A Services and General Administration officer told The Express Tribune that security personnel at all entrances of the civil secretariat had been directed to verify the identity of visitors by checking their national identity cards. They will also be frisked before being allowed entrance to the buildings.  He said maintaining the daily visitors’ registers, which some government offices already kept, had been made mandatory for the civil secretariat as well. He said details of visitors, including name, address, cell phone number and ID card number, would be added to the daily visitors’ register.

Under the new standard operating procedures, it has been made mandatory for employees of the civil secretariat to show their service cards at the entrance. A security guard said that they had been ordered to frisk all employees working at the secretariat.

The officer said though the number of security posts at the main boundary of the civil secretariat had been increased and barbed wire had been placed on gates and walls, the administration was considering increasing the number of police guards deployed there as well. He said the Home Department was now holding more meetings on law and order with high ranking government officers from civil and police departments in attendance.

He said the S&GAD and the Home Department had agreed on arranging foolproof security at the civil secretariat.

However last week, the security personnel on duty at the parking stand gate behind the civil secretariat kept letting in employees without checking their service cards.

When asked about the lax security, Welfare 1 Section Officer Hafiz Irfan said the security personnel knew most of the employees as they were daily visitors. “They might not have felt the need to check their service cards.”

Earlier, after attacks on the Navy War College and the Federal Investigation Agency’s office, the provincial government had banned the entry of all private vehicles into the secretariat. The decision has not been enforced yet.

This will change in the coming week, Muhammad Imtiaz, PRO to the chief secretary, said. He said the chief secretary had passed strict directives not to allow cars carrying the civil secretariat sticker inside the complex. This directive will be enforced in the coming days, he said.

Another S&GAD official said since there was no parking facility for private vehicles, influential people enter the secretariat on their cars and park them next to various offices. At times during rush hour, the secretariat looks like a parking pool for public and privately owned vehicles. He said the government’s “efforts” to beef up security at the secretariat would not help till it made arrangements for privately owned vehicles to be parked away from offices.

Security has also been tightened at other buildings including the Planning and Development Complex, the Chief Minister’s Inspection Team, the services tribunals, the Irrigation and Energy Complexes, the Livestock Department and the Board of Revenue. There is one security guard and a policeman appointed for security at the Punjab Ombudsman’s Office.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 13^th, 2015.