Govt rejects capital police's request for financial assistance.

Byline: Munawer Azeem

ISLAMABAD -- The capital police are likely to face financial crunch during the remaining part of the fiscal year 2019-20, as they will spend a significant part of their budget on maintaining law and order and other arrangements during the upcoming Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl's (JUI-F) Azadi March.

Officers in the police told Dawn on condition of anonymity that the police had made a request to the government for financial assistance to bear the expense of arrangements being made to deal with the Azadi March, but the government flatly turned it down. They said that under such circumstances the police highups had decided to spend the remaining development funds from the police budget for fiscal year 2019-20 to meet the expense.

The financial assistance was sought to bear the expenses of securing containers, arranging accommodation for police and paramilitary troops called from other provinces, meals and transportation, they stated.

Asks them to use funds from their own budget for Azadi March arrangements

The sources said that initially the capital police had sought financial assistance of Rs270 million for a fortnight and later slashed it to Rs130 million for a week.

Later, the demand for assistance was further reduced to Rs50 million for only three days, but that too was turned down, the officers said. They added that the government had asked the police to meet the financial requirements from their own resources.

The officers said that now the police had decided to utilise their remaining development budget i.e. Rs35 million reserved for purchase of vehicles and equipments.

The capital police have limited resources to generate funds, they said, adding that they had some petrol pumps which had been given on rent and the money from this was used for the welfare of police.

Besides, the police generate money from entry passes of the Diplomatic Enclave.

Only the development funds will be utilised to bear the expenses...