Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the National Police Bureau (NPB) on Wednesday organised a daylong National Police Summit and Innovation Expo-2018 with an aim to display innovative technologies and evolve new ideas to revolutionise policing system in the country.

During the ceremony, prizes worth Rs 100,000, Rs 75,000 and Rs 50,000 were distributed among the winners of innovation project proposals and innovative ideas.

In the innovation project proposals category, Bahria University Islamabad clinched 1st position, while Riphah International University won the 2nd position and Institute of Space Technology, Islamabad bagged the 3rd position. A total of 112 project proposals were received in the competition. Rawalpindi Medical College won the best idea award in the competition.

Speaking on the occasion, Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal congratulated HEC and NPB on holding the first ever National Police Summit and Innovation Expo where academia and national police heads gathered under one roof. He said the purpose of summit was to strengthen the linkages among government, academia and police. He said that universities played a very vital role in coping with the challenges of crime and terrorism. He said it was very important to build strong government-academia-industry linkages. “This partnership will lead to new avenues of collaboration,” he hoped. He said universities, especially the departments of psychology, sociology and criminology, could help decode minds of criminals.

He observed that policing was one of the oldest functions of the state as maintaining peace and ensuring security of citizens were among the primary tasks of a state. Peace is a primary requisite, he said, adding that all the stakeholders would have to play their significant role in ensuring peace.

He said police need to equip themselves with latest technologies. “Police must be ahead of criminals in use of technologies,” he stressed. He revealed that cybercrime had become one of the key challenges for policing. “This requires new competencies to understand and utilise new technologies,” he emphasised.

Ahsan Iqbal hoped the next national police summit and innovation expo would include police departments of friendly countries so that ideas could be exchanged for improved policing. He said youth were the next real power of Pakistan so every department must focus their energies on youth. He said police could use universities as a strong collaborative platform to interact with youth and protect their lives.

He informed the audience that Islamabad Police had been directed to exhibit zero tolerance to compromise on safety measures and traffic violations. “Enforcement of traffic laws can save hundreds of lives,” he said, adding that new ideas need to be evolved to materialise the concept of community policing. He said that the government had established national database of criminals, which would help identify criminals everywhere in the country.

He also launched the e-policing project, which includes a citizen application and electronic challan system.

Published in Daily Times, March 15^th 2018.