A senior official who was part of the meeting told TFT that the additional chief secretary incharge of the home department (ACS Home) briefed the cabinet that PSCA had successfully displayed its infrastructure, systems and technologies in the metropolitan city of Lahore for public safety and managing the provincial capital's security efficiently.
He maintained PSCA was an autonomous institution in which employees were hired on contractual basis. Due to the contractual nature of their job, employees of the authority frequently switched their jobs as and when they had comparatively better opportunities in some other public/private sector organisations.
“Consequently, posts in PSCA/PPIC3 centre frequently fell vacant,” he noted.
Another senior official who was part of the cabinet meeting said that the current volatile security environment, in view of the rise in terrorist activities over the past few months, made it all the more necessary to enhance the PSCA’s capacity so that it could provide its services to law enforcement agencies (LEAs) in an effective manner.
New recruitments improves operational efficiency
“In order to improve operational efficiency and for timely completion of the aforementioned ongoing PP1C3 projects, it was imperative to fill all important operational/technical vacancies as soon as possible,” the senior official pointed out.
During the 13th meeting of the provincial caretaker cabinet held on April 15, 2023, the PSCA offered the assurance that the entire recruiting process will be undertaken through a transparent competitive procedure, and it will meet all salary expenses from its existing budget.
“Accordingly, the cabinet was requested to consider and approve the relaxation of the ban which was considered and approved,” the senior official said.
‘Timely, prudent decision’
Speaking to TFT, a senior police official praised the "very timely and prudent decision" of caretaker chief minister Punjab Syed Mohsin Raza Naqvi, especially after 9th May when "hooligans of a political party" attacked the Lahore corps commander's official residence Jinnah House and other important sites of the city.
"We were able to identify and arrest many miscreants with the help of devoted and hard-working officials of PSCA led by its managing director (MD) Muhammad Kamran, who left no stone unturned in helping the law enforcement agencies in identifying the miscreants," the senior police official said.
Police and allied law enforcement agencies had been able to positively identify many of the 9th May rioters with the help of the safe city team and cameras, according to credible sources.
“Thanks to the timely decision of CM Punjab and his cabinet, the efficiency of law enforcement will increase manifold with the technological expertise of the authority. This will help LEAs immensely in case any untoward incident occurs in future ,” a senior official noted.