LAHORE: The PPP has asked Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to take a policy decision to `de-politicise` police in order to improve the law and order situation in the province.

`Postings and transfers in the police department are made while giving priority to loyalty overcompetence and merit,` PPP Central Punjab President Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo said here on Tuesday.

Referring to the chief minister`s speech at the passing out ceremony in Sihala where he admitted that without a fundamental change in `thana culture` terrorism could not be controlled, Wattoo said if Shahbaz could not change thana culture during his two-decade rulein Punjab how he would succeed in the remaining tenure of the government.

He said Shahbaz made postings and transfers in the police without merit.

`He always looked for obedient servants who would serve him than the people of the province,` he said.

`Posting and transfers in the police department should be basedon merit and no consideration be given in this regard to the recommendations of MPAs, MNAs, and ministers,` he said.

He pointed out that it was the depoliticisation of the police in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the posting of Nasir Khan Durrani as IGP who had been given a free hand in departmental transfers that had resulted in bringing down the crime rate there.