LAHORE -  The provincial government is planning to replicate the Lahore’s model for tenant and hotel guest registration in all the Punjab districts.

The initiative, yet to be implemented properly and fully in the province, is part of the anti-terror national action plan.

Punjab inspector general of police Mushtaq Ahmed Sukhera last week directed the regional and district police officers to install tenants registration system and hotel-eye software in all Punjab districts.

The IGP approved the scheme when he was addressing the RPO conference at the central police office. Earlier, Lahore DIG (Operations) Dr Haider Ashraf gave a detailed briefing to the provincial police officer about the technology-driven monitoring model. The system helped police track down hundreds of targeted offenders in Lahore during the last couple of months.

Consequently, the DIG (Information Technology) forwarded a circular to all the district police officers.

According to the letter, the officers were asked to adopt hotel-eye software and strictly ensure tenant registration in their respective districts. “Hotel eye and tenant registration system are being used by the capital city police, district Lahore,” says the circular. “They have proved to be of immense utility and, with the help of these systems, the Lahore police has been able to identify more than 300 target offenders.”

The Punjab Information and Technology Board (PTIB) helped Lahore police develop the software.

DIG (Operations) Haider Ashraf said, “We are now documenting our citizens, tenants, and guests in hotels. (The exercise) Matching criminal record (is) helping us in arrests of criminals.”

Lahore police arrested dozens of criminals from hotels of the city through the newly installed ‘Hotel Eye Software’. This new system was introduced to tighten the noose around the most wanted criminals. The rare information technology-oriented initiative in policing was launched to keep eye on the activities of the criminals, suspects, and terrorists.

The software has been made a permanent feature of the security process as the police have linked nearly 600 hotels with the crime database at its control room in the DIG Operations office.

According to the proposed pattern, “The tenants should get themselves registered with the local police through fingerprints and ID cards.” Similarly, only authorised property dealers (to be notified by the Punjab government) could be tasked to register property owners and tenants through the same procedure that is fingerprints.

Also, a web-based system should be formulated so that people can get themselves registered voluntarily after paying a “token fee.” As far as the registration of commercial accommodations is concerned, software may be installed at all the hostels, hotels, and guesthouses where the visitors’ record could be documented.

In Lahore, tens of thousands of tenants are registered with their respective area police since January 2015. The government last year had introduced the Punjab Information of Temporary Residence Ordinance 2015, making the tenants’ registration mandatory.

Citizens still call for a hassle-free registration system while the police are strictly punishing the violators. The government had made compulsory for the house owners to submit necessary documents related to tenants in nearby police stations. But, the police started filing cases (under Sections 8, 9 and 10) against the violators without prior warning.

Despite the lapse of one and a half year, there was no proper registration system at many police stations. Under the Ordinance, the house owners and managers of hotels and guesthouses are bound to provide information about the renters to the local police within three hours.

Similarly, it was made compulsory for the real-estate agents to submit the information about the tenants to the police within 48 hours after the house is rented out. Otherwise, the police are ordered to register criminal cases against the violators.

Following the Quetta carnage, the provincial government had launched an advertisement campaign in the media to urge the public about the mandatory registration of tenants. House owners and real estate agents say there was no appropriate procedure available with the police to register tenants in this sprawling metropolis.

In December, the Lahore police had suggested the government to amend the laws in order to make the process of tenants’ registration simpler and trouble-free. Unfortunately, the authorities are yet to establish a proper system of registration in all Punjab districts other than Lahore.

Again, Lahore police are carrying out massive security sweeps in hostels, hotels, inns, guesthouses, and rented apartments besides checking the particulars of tenants. City police arrested some six thousand persons including landlords, tenants, property dealers, owners, and managers of private accommodations for violating the laws tenant since January, 2015.

Several police stations in Lahore are still working on manual system. Some of them still lack computers and stationary. The station clerks have no facilities to digitally compile or keep the tenants record. Amid rapid urbanization, the procedure of registration of millions of tenants and tens of thousands of guests is really an uphill task for the law enforcement agency.

Even if the police successfully collect all the tenants’ information, the department has no manpower and skills to maintain the data in computers devices.

According to a Lahore police spokesman, hotel and guesthouses management are directed to keep a record of every person who enters the hotel. This record will be kept in special software, called Hotel Eye.

The police have made it compulsory for all the hotels in the provincial capital to use this software. The spokesman further said that the city police were all set to start online registration of tenants through a website in order to facilitate citizens. The exercise will be launched within weeks, he added.