LAHORE, Jun 25 (APP): Inspector General of Police (IGP) Punjab, Dr. Usman Anwar, chaired an important budget review meeting for the fiscal year 2024-25 at the Central Police Office (CPO), here on Wednesday.
The IGP said the Punjab Police outperformed all provincial departments in terms of development budget utilisation, spending 99.5 percent of the allocated Rs12 billion for ongoing schemes during the current fiscal year. He commended regional and district police officers for ensuring efficient and transparent use of allocated funds.
Dr. Anwar highlighted that several new projects were launched under the department’s development portfolio during 2024-25. The budget was divided into three main categories of development schemes, with additional funds secured through supplementary grants for the timely execution of key government initiatives.
He said the Punjab Police aimed to complete most ongoing schemes in the upcoming fiscal year 2025-26. The government of Punjab had allocated Rs 187 billion to the police department in the previous fiscal year. However, due to major initiatives such as the Punjab Safe Cities Authority, Smart Police Stations, Special Initiative Police Stations, and other development programmes, the total expenditure exceeded Rs 233 billion.
He added that the increased costs were primarily driven by the performance of Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), Riot Management Force, and the Crime Control Department (CCD). For the fiscal year 2025-26, the Punjab Police has been allocated Rs 199 billion—an increase of Rs 12 billion over the previous year.
The IGP informed the meeting that the Safe Cities project was being expanded to 10 tehsils and would further be extended to over 7,000 Union Councils using local resources. Under the “Safe Punjab Vision” of Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, an integrated surveillance network comprising CCTV cameras will be developed across the province.
Additional IGP Welfare and Finance Imran Arshad joined the meeting via video link, while Additional IGP Logistics Imran Mahmood, DIG Logistics and Procurement Shariq Kamal Siddiqui, DIG Welfare and Finance Ghazi Muhammad Salahuddin, AIG Finance Nida Umar Chattha, AIG Welfare Abdul Rahim Shirazi, and AIG Logistics Abdullah Lak were among the officers present.
