Punjab Police Inspector General (IGP) Javed Iqbal on Tuesday suggested dividing Lahore into three regions on administrative basis.
The IGP was attending a meeting at the Chief Minister’s House at Model Town chaired by Punjab CM Shahbaz Sharif to discuss the law and order situation in the city. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Nawaz Sharif also attended the meeting.
According to details, Iqbal suggested to divide Lahore into three ranges of police at least and in nine districts. The IGP suggested this in order to control the increasing crime in the city and improve law and order. He also suggested dividing Gujranwala into two ranges.
According to sources, the meeting discussed pros and cons of the suggestion until four hours. But the decision was not made by the authorities and the meeting ended with a decision to hold another meeting on Monday. Sources said that the meeting also discussed steps taken for the security of VVIPs. Shahbaz ordered police high-ups to further improve the security for VVIPs.
Sources at the IG Office, confirming the proposal, said that the proposal was submitted by the IGP to control the increasing crime in the city. Sources said that the meeting decided to debate on the proposal in the next session in which the IGP will submit a detailed proposal.
Additional Inspector General Aftab Sultan, supporting the proposal, told Pakistan Today that although he did not attend the meeting, but earlier, the IGP informed him about the proposal. He said that the proposal was purely based on reality, as it would not be possible for a single DIG Operation to handle 80 police stations at a time. Sultan said that Lahore should be divided into at least two or three ranges and in different nine districts.
The additional IG said that if the Punjab government implemented this proposal than each DPO will look after around nine police stations. He said that a DPO could easily manage nine police stations at once, as the complaint of increasing burden due to increasing population and excessive number of police stations will automatically be solved.
Sultan quoted the example of Delhi, India which was divided into 12 to 13 ranges and 12 to 13 DIG-ranked officials were working simultaneously. He suggested that an administrative security wing should be developed separately besides dividing the city into different ranges. The additional IG said that the security wing should only provide security to VVIPs and not even a single policeman should be used to provide security to VVIPs.
