Leading role of women police in field discussed.

LAHORE -- A provincial women's police conference discussed the prospects of increasing women's representation in the Punjab police force as well as enhancing the female recruitment quota to 25 per cent across the province.

The conference was organised by the Punjab police and the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) at Alhamra here on Monday.

Punjab police chief Aamir Zulfiqar Khan, chief secretary Abdullah Khan Sumbal, USIP country director Imran Khan, Punjab Council for Human Rights executive director Shafiq Chaudhry, female police officers attended the conference.

Inspector General of Police Aamir Zulfiqar Khan said that his department would increase the appointment of women in various districts against all the slots, from in charge of the investigation to the district police chief.

He said compared to high women population ratio in Punjab, their representation in the police force was desperately low.

The IGP said he had issued instructions to all regional and district police officers to identify the problems of women police officers and personnel, giving them a specific time.

He added that he himself would also interact with female officers and discuss their problems during his visits to units and districts.

'The appointment of women officers in supervisory positions in the field has achieved good results,' he said, suggesting that women police officers to prefer working in the field instead of offices because he wanted to see them on the front-lines in field postings.

A proposal was initiated to streamline the transfer/posting and matters related to the official leaves of women police personnel with directions to give them equal opportunities for professional career growth.

Mr Sumbal said programmes like women's police conferences not only drew attention to the important problems faced by the force but also helped in formulating a plan of...