LAHORE - Stressing protecting life and property is the prime responsibility of state, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said every possible step should be taken for the purse.
He was presiding over a meeting which reviewed overall law and order situation in the province on Saturday. Provincial Ministers Rana Sanaullah, Col (R) Shuja Khanzada, Chief Secretary, Inspector General Police, Secretary Home and other concerned officials attended the meeting. The Chief Minister also gave approval to recruitment on 2000 new posts for Special Protection Unit during next financial year.
Addressing the meeting, Shahbaz Sharif said that police should perform its duties diligently for the protection of life and property of the citizen and maintenance of law and order. He said that modern technology should be benefited for further improving law and order situation and checking crimes. He directed that intelligence sharing system should be made more effective and modern training programme for the police should be forwarded speedily. The Chief Minister said that Provincial Minister Col (R) Shuja Khanzada should personally monitor the standard of training of the officials to be recruited in Special Protection Unit and submit a report in this regard. He disclosed that a state-of-the-art Command and Control Center is being set up at a cost of five billion rupees in the provincial metropolis which will help eradicate crime. He said that latest equipments will be installed in Command and Control Center and monitoring of the city will be carried out through modern CCTV cameras. Shahbaz Sharif directed that the project of Command and Control Center should be implemented in a professional manner and completed within stipulated timeframe. He said that Command and Control Center project is of great importance for controlling crimes through which not only performance of the police but its attitude towards people will also be monitored through digital monitoring. Secretary Home gave a detailed briefing about Command and Control Center project and overall law and order situation in the province.
Separately,  Head of German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development on Pakistan and Afghanistan, Stefan Oswald met Shahbaz Sharif.
Matters of mutual interest and promotion of bilateral relations were discussed during the meeting. German Ambassador in Pakistan Dr Cyrill Nunn, Provincial Ministers Muhammad Shafiq, Sher Ali Khan, Additional Chief Secretary Energy and other concerned officials were present at the occasion.
Talking to German delegation, Shahbaz Sharif said that best friendly relations exist between Pakistan and Germany. He said that entire world acknowledges speedy development of Germany and its expertise in technology. He said that Pakistan wants to benefit from German technology. He said that the severe energy crisis being faced by the country has caused irreparable loss to the national economy, due to which, all social development sectors including education, health and agriculture have been badly affected. He said that early resolution of energy crisis is very essential for promotion of socio-economic and trade activities in the country. The Chief Minister said that government is taking all possible steps for coping with the problem of shortage of energy at the earliest. He said that energy crisis will certainly be overcome with the cooperation of friendly countries.
He said that Punjab government is working on the projects of generating energy through hydle, biomass, biogas, solar and other sources. Shahbaz Sharif said that agreements have been made with various local and foreign companies for energy generation projects and steps are being taken speedily for giving a practical shape to these agreements.