ISLAMABAD, May 24: A monitoring committee headed by Inspector General of Police Punjab has been formed to monitor the performance of District Police Officers (DPOs), Divisional and Town Superintendent of Police (SPs) in the provinces.

This was stated in the meeting of regional police officers, Deputy Inspector General (DIGs) of police and DPOs held at Rawalpindi on Wednesday. The other members of the committee are additional IGP Dr Syed Azhar Nadeem, AIGP investigation Salahuddin Niazi, DIG headquarters Asif Nawaz, DIG Javed Noor and DIG inspections and vigilance cell Zafar Iqbal Qureshi.

The sources told Dawn that the committee had been made when chief minister found that the crime figure, which was given to him was fake.

The chief minister was not satisfied with the performance of the Punjab police and its image among the people.

The sources said that all offices of the monitoring committee were stationed in Lahore so they could not monitor police performance properly.

The meeting of the monitoring committee would be held after every fortnight in which the performance of DPOs and SPs would be reviewed and disciplinary action would be taken against the police officers for unsatisfactory performance.

The meeting was told that SPs and DSPs would work as supervisory police officers (SPOs) from June 1, at police stations level in five big cities of the province under the chief minister Punjab’s police reforms programme.

The meeting welcomed the announcement of the chief minister Punjab to increase Rs2000 in the salary of constables.

Addressing the meeting, IGP Punjab Ziaul Hassan Khan urged the officer that strategy should be evolved against to chief minister’s priorities.

The meeting was told that the chief minister had directed to intensify the drive against proclaimed offenders, organized criminal gangs and rustlers in the province.

The meeting was further told that the chief minister and IGP Punjab would conduct surprise visits to the police stations in the province.

The IGP said that under chief minister’s directive, all DSPs would hold open kutcheries after every ten days to redress the grievances of the people.

The meeting was attended by additional IGPs and other police officers.