MANSEHRA: The police plan to expand the network of digitalfacilitation centres to all 25 tehsils across the Hazara Division to provide 13 public services under the one-window operation to over six million people.
‘The establishment of the facilitation centres across KP on the directives of Inspector General of Police Zulfiqar Hameed is a revolutionary step in digital public policing. We are going to replicate that model in every tehsil of our division to enable citizens to avoid the traditional police station culture while availing various services swiftly and diligently,’ Hazara Range DIG Nasir Mehmood Satti told Dawn on Sunday.
A total of 19 police facilitation centres (PFCs), also known as Police Khidmat Marakaz, have been established across the division, including six in Mansehra, one each in Torghar, KolaiPalas and Upper Kohistan, two each in Lower Kohistan and Battagram, and three each in Abbottabad and Haripur.
These centres provide public services under one roof, including driving licences, character certificates, vehicle verification, tenant registration, police clearance certificates for travelling abroad and other services through one-window operations, bridging the gap between the police and the public.These centres are designed to provide computerised documents in a friendly environment without forcing people to circle around police stations and move from one officer to another.
According to data collected by Dawn from across the division, all these centres have so far issued 28,576 character certificates, 34,933 police clearance certificates to foreign travellers, 2,485 clearance certificates to expatriate Pakistanis, 6,636 tenant deed certificates under the National Action Plan to effectively deal with terrorism, and 29,563 missing reports.
As many as 1,929 foreigners have also been registered with the police in Hazara for travelling, tourism or other purposes.
During the corresponding period, the official status of 272 government employees was also verified by police through these PFCs across the division.
The DIG said that to ensure quality services with courtesy, the male and female personnel deployed at the PFCs were selected on the basis of their previous records, and only those with good reputations were assigned responsibilities.
He said that extending the existing network of PFCs to all 25 tehsils across the division would help provide digital and public policing services to every individual across the region.