CM Bugti launches 16 police apps; Mastung orchard owners to be treated as facilitators

QUETTA: Chief Minister Balochistan Mir Sarfraz Bugti has said that if the provincial Minister for Interior or security forces are attacked from grape orchards in Mastung, the property owners will not be absolved of guilt but will be treated as facilitators. He said a committee has been formed on complaints about the recruitment of tehsildars in the Balochistan Public Service Commission and its report will be made public.

The Chief Minister said the Balochistan government is committed to taking governance towards greater digitalisation because it markedly improves public service, transparency and service delivery. He said the new and upgraded applications of Balochistan Police will help ordinary citizens not only with the criminal justice system but also in resolving everyday complaints and difficulties, while the digital facilities introduced for women and the families of martyrs will increase public trust.

He was addressing the inauguration ceremony of Balochistan Police’s digital initiatives at the Central Police Office, Quetta, on Friday. Provincial Minister for Interior and Tribal Affairs Mir Ziaullah Langove, Chief Secretary Balochistan Shakeel Qadir Khan, Additional Chief Secretary Home Hamza Shafqaat, Inspector General of Police Balochistan Muhammad Tahir Khan, police officers and personnel, and media representatives were present. Earlier, IG Muhammad Tahir Khan gave the Chief Minister a detailed briefing on the 16 apps being launched.

Eight new apps, eight old ones upgraded

The Chief Minister praised the digital initiatives and congratulated the IG, his team and the IT team. He said the government’s thinking from day one has been to make governance as digital as possible so that people get better services and the system becomes more transparent. He said eight old applications of Balochistan Police have been improved and eight new ones introduced.

He also praised the services of DIG Headquarters Ahsan Asad Alavi, saying he has been transferred from Balochistan. His services for the people of Balochistan are valuable, he said, and prayed that Allah grant him more success in future responsibilities.

Mir Sarfraz Bugti said the facility introduced for the families of martyrs is very close to his heart. It will help keep direct contact with these families, learn their needs and improve their welfare. Under the digitalisation of the police, facilities have been introduced for several areas, including the Khidmat Markaz, hotelling, travelling and the IG Police Complaints Cell. These will give citizens confidence that the police are available to serve them.

Women’s safety app and awareness campaign

Giving special importance to the app for the protection and empowerment of women, the Chief Minister said women face harassment at the workplace, on the roads and while travelling. He said the app needs to be improved further and the public, especially female students, must be made aware of it. The government will launch a full awareness campaign so that girls going to universities and colleges, working women and women travelling feel safe. The app allows a user to declare an emergency with one click and instantly notify parents and the police.

He said that to move society forward, women and girls must be given education, opportunities and protection. The answer to those who commit terrorism in the name of Baloch nationalism and use girls, he said, is that the government will give its girls scholarships, send them to Harvard and Oxford, provide pink scooties and pink buses, make workplace harassment laws more effective and offer modern digital facilities, so that girls serve the province and the country shoulder to shoulder with their brothers.

Rs5 million reward and Rs50 million announced

The Chief Minister announced a cash reward of Rs5 million for the officers and personnel who worked on the digital initiatives, and Rs50 million this year for further digitalisation of Balochistan Police. He thanked the Punjab government and Punjab Police for their cooperation on digitalisation in Balochistan. He said there is no shame in learning from good initiatives of other provinces.

He said the Sindh government and the Gilgit-Baltistan government, on the direction of Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, have sought help for Balochistan’s merit-based artificial intelligence testing system and want to introduce it in their provinces. The Chief Minister said digitalisation has no limit: the more digital the system, the better the service delivery. He told the families of martyrs not to consider themselves alone, saying the Balochistan government always stands with them.

Police salaries, thana culture and complaints cell

Answering a question, the Chief Minister said steps are being taken to improve police salaries in line with inflation. He said police personnel are “our own children”. Salaries of the fighting force, ATF, CTD and SOW have already been raised. He said that after Balochistan was declared an A area, it will take some time to adapt the policing system to new requirements. However, the government’s focus is on empowering the police, and the aim is for Balochistan Police to emerge as a strong and empowered service after three or four years. Salaries will be balanced and no one will be treated unfairly.

He said the bravery and resolve with which Balochistan Police are performing their duties under IG Muhammad Tahir Khan is commendable. The government sometimes has to take decisions that are not immediately popular and that cost political capital, but the decisions of the state matter more than political interests. “Real leadership does not always make popular decisions but right ones,” he said, adding that history will prove the policing decisions were right. Difficulties will certainly arise at first, but he is confident that Balochistan Police will emerge as one of the best police services in Pakistan, and the government will provide all resources and a supportive environment for it.

Asked about thana culture, he said it is a long-standing problem not only of Balochistan but of the whole of Pakistan, and traditional policing methods must now be brought in line with modern requirements. In registering an FIR, the police must see actionable material in the application, because the entire justice system, including prosecution, then moves. So the effort is to resolve matters mutually at the initial stage where possible. A complaint filed on the IG Police Complaint Portal appears at once on the screen of the IG’s control centre, instructions are given to the officers concerned, a time frame for redress is set and progress is monitored. He said the system will take some time to become fully effective, but the public will see clear improvement.

Safe City Authority and Secretary IT

Asked about Safe City, the Chief Minister said the cases of the traders and Dr Mahnoor killed in Quetta are clear examples of how much CCTV and Safe City cameras help trace those involved in crime and terrorism. The Safe City system also played an important part in the arrest of more than 40 to 50 people after major terrorist attacks. The government has set up the Safe City Authority and the legislation for it is complete.

Praising the Secretary IT, he said that in the past IT secretaries sometimes served only two months, while the present Secretary IT will complete three years in October. He started the whole system from zero and took it to the point where the authority was set up under the Safe City Act and linked with law enforcement agencies.

“The state will not tire, the terrorists must”

Asked about the writ of the state and the security situation, the Chief Minister said establishing the state’s writ is the government’s basic responsibility. The government has neither shied away from it nor claimed that all is well in Balochistan. He said Balochistan is currently in a state of war, an intelligence-based war against Pakistan, in which the province is a buffer zone because of its geography and certain weaknesses. He said there is solid and factual evidence linking this war to India’s intelligence agency RAW, including the Kulbhushan Yadav case and the dossiers given to the international community by former prime ministers.

Referring to Marka-e-Haq, he said the Pakistan Army, under Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir and with the support of the Government of Pakistan, gave an effective response to an enemy many times its size, and hostile elements are now trying to take the same war into another domain. He said the first reason for the rise in terrorism is the modern weapons left behind by NATO forces in Afghanistan, which are available on the black market. NATO trained the Afghan National Army for 30 years, but it could not defend Kabul for even 30 hours. He said it will take time for Pakistan to meet this challenge because all stages of its procurement follow a formal system. The second reason, he said, is that terrorist elements are pushing Baloch people and youth into a futile war whose aims they can never achieve.

The Chief Minister said the situation in Balochistan is neither as bad as it is portrayed nor as good, and the government fully understands it and has a clear plan to deal with it. More than 1,000 hardened terrorists have been neutralised in one year alone. Terrorists appear on a highway for a few minutes and give the impression that all highways are under their control, although the province has more than 4,000 kilometres of highways. He said this is guerrilla warfare, but the state will not tire of this war; the terrorists must. It is not a war of a thousand years but one that will end in a year or two.

Mastung orchards: “The state’s patience also has a limit”

Asked about the use of grape orchards and private property for attacks on security forces in Mastung, the Chief Minister said the government does not want action that affects ordinary citizens because terrorists use human shields, but the state’s patience also has a limit. If a convoy of security forces or the Interior Minister is attacked from an orchard, the owners cannot say they did not know. The owner of private property used for terrorism will also be treated as a facilitator.

He said orchard owners are being warned repeatedly. If this continues, the government will have two options: moving people in large numbers and resettling them elsewhere, or destroying the orchards used for terrorism. The blood of Pakistan Army, FC and police personnel is sacred, he said. It is unacceptable that a soldier is martyred and no one is held to account while someone’s private property keeps being used for terrorism.

Committee on tehsildar recruitment: “Meritocracy, meritocracy and meritocracy”

Asked about recruitment, the Chief Minister said an internal error in the recruitment of tehsildars has come to his notice. A committee has been formed with the Public Service Commission to correct it. It will submit its report in seven to ten days, and the media and public will be informed. He said the Balochistan government’s policy is merit alone, and it is the only way to reconnect the young generation that propaganda has distanced from the state. Whether in the Public Service Commission or the artificial intelligence testing system, the government will stand by merit even at a political cost.

He cited recent recruitment by the Balochistan Revenue Authority, for which about 20 to 25 people from his constituency had applied, yet not a single candidate from Dera Bugti was selected. This shows that recruitment was purely on merit. He said that even if he has to lose an election for not compromising on merit, he does not care. The state is more important to him than any political interest, even more than his 70-year-old mother. Merit is the key, he said, and good governance is built on merit.

Photo: courtesy DGPR Balochistan