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The advertisement which appeared in several national dailies showed three lions standing back to back on top of the small insignia, clearly indicating its Indian origin.
The base of the insignias of police in Pakistan and Indian Punjab is the same. The difference is that the top of the Indian Punjab police insignia has three lions while that of the Pakistani Punjab police features a star.
The Indian insignia is an adaptation of the Ashoka's emblem while the Pakistani insignia reflects the national flag.
It may be mentioned that an advertisement published in Indian newspapers on Jan 24 this year had carried a picture of former Pakistan Air Force Chief Air Marshal Tanvir Mehmood Ahmad instead of the Chief of Indian Air Force.
“We have settled the score,” a caller remarked.
IGP Tariq Saleem Dogar said the insignia faux pas had hurt feelings of patriotic people, including police personnel.
“The advertisement was released by the police department without any insignia. It was inserted afterwards when the copy was sent to the Punjab Directorate General of Public Relations for release to the press,” the IGP said.
“The mistake has been made by the information department. I have already talked to the information secretary, asking him to find out whether this is a human error or a deliberate effort,” he said, adding that this was certainly an 'unpardonable' mistake.
Information Secretary Shoaib bin Aziz admitted that the insignia was inserted after the police department had sent a copy of the advertisement to the DGPR for publications in newspapers.
But, he said, the mistake had been committed by the advertising agency through which the advertisement was released to the press.
“This is a human error as someone in the agency downloaded the emblem from internet last night and pasted it on the copy without verifying it,” the secretary said.
He, however, said the error was grave and a warning notice had been given to the advertisement agency.
No official of the agency was available for comment.
