Punjab Safe Cities Authority Agreement, A Landmark.

Big cities have big problems. Especially the problems of these big cities become extraordinarily chaotic, and they start expanding their branches here and there without any strategy. Lahore, the heart of Pakistan, is also facing similar problems. Where these problems come from the non-availability of urban facilities, the most critical issue of big cities also comes in the form of an increase in the crime rate. Now, terrorism has emerged in the form of such evil that after which it cannot be included in general crimes, but it has the form of another species. Along with this, traffic mismanagement is also a big problem.

Keeping all these issues in mind, Punjab Safe Cities Authority entered into an agreement with Huawei to solve them. According to this agreement, Huawei had the first to install cameras in Lahore and bring the whole of Lahore under the eyes of the authorities using the latest equipment. After the signing of this agreement, its implementation was started, but unfortunately, there were differences between the Punjab Safe Cities Authority and Huawei on some issues.

The remarkable thing about the relationship between China and Pakistan is that these two countries and their citizens resolve their mutual issues through negotiation. Therefore, both parties started thinking about this issue and during this thinking, various suggestions were presented to the related sub-committees of the Punjab Cabinet. There was great deliberation on these proposals, and a draft of a new agreement was introduced in the Punjab Cabinet meeting. The Punjab Cabinet also approved this new settlement agreement.

After completing this process, this new agreement was signed by the officials of Huawei and the Punjab Safe Cities Authority in a joint ceremony. The event was attended by the Chinese Consul General Zhoa Shiren , posted in Lahore, who is a very dynamic personality, along with Advisor to Chief Minister Punjab for Interior Omar Sarfaraz Cheema, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Punjab Raja Basharat, Minister for Irrigation Punjab Hashim Dogar, Acting Inspector General of Police Punjab Kanwar Shahrukh and Huawei company officials participated.

This issue between Huawei and the Punjab Safe Cities Authority has been going on for a year. Under the new settlement agreement, the Punjab government will not pay any additional amount to the Huawei company, but all payments will be made at the dollar rate, which was the dollar rate at the time of the agreement. Keep in mind that when the first agreement was made, the dollar rate was much lower than it is today. At that time, this rate was 104 rupees, which has now reached 229 rupees. The good thing is that Huawei has decided to provide all the services at the old dollar rate despite such a significant change in the rate, which is extraordinary.

This new settlement agreement is seen as a landmark agreement in Punjab, and a time frame has also been fixed for the completion of the project as soon as possible. Engineers and technical staff of Huawei will come to Pakistan and make the project fully functional in only three to four months. Along with the services, Huawei will provide all the software and hardware at the old rate.

It is also imperative that the company will provide the necessary software and hardware as well as all the modern innovation required to be introduced.
After the next four months, when the project becomes fully functional, it is expected to achieve extraordinary success in establishing peace and order in urban life. Given this possible success, this project is not only being installed in Lahore but also in the districts of Kasur and Nankana. It is hoped that the Huawei company will soon implement and activate this project in these districts. At the same time, this project is still under construction in Sialkot and Muridke.

This project will not be limited only to these cities, but it is planned to be started in the entire Punjab to improve urban life. Keeping this objective in mind, a modern centre has also been established in Rawalpindi. This project will play a key role in data acquisition and analysis of this data, which will play an essential role in combating crime. This project will stand as a living image of Pak-China friendship.