Islamabad: (Ch Mudassar Iqbal) Prime Minister Imran Khan Saturday directed the senior police officers and bureaucrats of Punjab to do away with old mindset and system for its incompatibility with the vision of Naya Pakistan and fully focus on safeguarding the common man’s rights.
In a meeting with the bureaucrats and senior police officers in Lahore during his day-long visit there, the prime minister instructed them to carry out their duties purely on merit and strictly advised them not to fulfill any illegal demand of any political figure, a PM Office press release said.
Special assistants to prime minister Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, Syed Zulfiqar Bukhari and Barrister Shahzad Akbar, Chief Minister of Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar, Punjab chief secretary and inspector general of Punjab Police also attended the meeting.
Congratulating the newly posted officers, the prime minister said up to 1960s, Pakistan had a distinction in the governance, bureaucracy and policies.
However, he said Pakistan was currently going through a critical stage which required the economic stability. He said the national economy was getting stable for what he also felicitated his economic team.
The prime minister told the meeting that the government had made all the appointments in bureaucracy and other posts on merit and had freed the officers from all political pressures.
A competent bureaucracy is inevitable to bring about the economic development, he added.
The prime minister called for improving the law and order and governance system in Punjab province.
“In Naya Pakistan, we have to change the old mindset. Old system can no more continue,” he remarked.
The prime minister told the senior officers that public service was their foremost responsibility and asked them to strive for uplifting the living standard of the poor man.
Assuring the officers to ensure security of their service tenure, the prime minister also instructed them to curb the child abuses and protect the powerless against the powerful elements.
The prime minister advised the officers to exercise their legal powers only for public service and to uplift their living standards.
“In the past, the police stations used to protect the influential ones. But now, your duty is to protect the poor against the powerful ones,” he instructed.
