Daily Times

Hazara police have decided to involve Public Liaison Councils (PLCs) in the entire region to fight the challenge of COVID 19 by taking the community on board while enforcing all the coercive measures, including social distances.

This was discussed in length during a meeting chaired by Regional Police Officer Hazara Qazi Jamil-ur-Rehman held at a regional conference in the room here on Wednesday. The meeting was attended by District Police Officers of Abbottabad Javed Iqbal Wazir, DPO Haripur Muhammad Ishfaque & DPO Mansehra who briefed the RPO about the role & responsibilities of Public Liaison Councils (PLCs).

It was told that PLCs were incorporated in the KP Police Act 2017 have been engaged to assist police in the maintenance of law and order and resolution of local disputes. These Councils have been working with police for many years now and have played an important role in the law and order situation. RPO Hazara Qazi Jamil-ur-Rehman directed the DPOs to review the structure of PLCs and remove the deficiencies if any immediately to involve them the challenge of COVID-19 and asked them to convene the meeting of PLCs reactivated them and called upon them to play their role in these testing times. Supporting his argument, he said “This necessitates a stronger community-engagement whereby the community should be engaged, consulted with, sensitized and encouraged to help and support the government efforts for the greater good of the community. If done appropriately, this will earn community’s buy-in which is extremely important at this stage”. He was of the view that there is a need to activate existing bodies instead of establishing new ones and Public Liaison Councils being deep-rooted in society and have an effective role in the community need to be utilized in the implementation of Government directives regarding COVID- 19.