LAHORE: The Punjab government has become the first province in Pakistan to establish a dedicated Artificial Intelligence Intelligence Hub, a facility the provincial government says will allow law-enforcement agencies to detect threats early and act before incidents occur rather than after them.
Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif formally launched the hub through an e-launch at the office of the Punjab Enforcement and Regulatory Authority (PERA), where she was given a detailed briefing on the project at the authority’s headquarters, according to an official statement issued by the Punjab government.
The chief minister said the concept of artificial intelligence had been converted into a working facility within a few months, with the support of the Pakistan Army and other security institutions.
She thanked Lahore Corps Commander Lt Gen Fayyaz Hussain Shah for the Army’s cooperation and congratulated Home Minister Khawaja Salman Rafique, Home Secretary Ahmed Javed Qazi and other officials for establishing the hub in record time. “Police, Special Branch and other law-enforcement agencies also deserve appreciation,” she said.
All security institutions, she added, had worked as “one unit” to protect citizens and maintain law and order despite difficult circumstances and continuing security challenges.
Under the new arrangement, district coordination committees across Punjab will receive digital alerts generated by the hub — a shift from the existing model, in which threat information typically travels upward through the reporting chain before reaching district administrations.
The chief minister said the system was expected to substantially improve the province’s response time in countering terrorism and to help authorities prevent incidents before they occurred. “If we can control incidents before they happen, that will be the real success,” she said.
The launch sits inside a wider technology push. Billions of rupees, the chief minister said, had been spent on making Punjab a technology-enabled province — spending that has already reshaped frontline policing infrastructure.
The statement placed the hub within a broader security overhaul. Security personnel had previously suffered heavy casualties in attacks on checkposts, the chief minister noted, at a time when militants carried better weapons and night-vision equipment than the police did.
“Joint checkposts have now been strengthened and equipped with bulletproof protection, thermal imaging and night-vision cameras,” she said, adding that the upgrades had significantly reduced the risk of casualties even if a checkpost came under attack.
She said the riverine katcha areas, long treated as sanctuaries for organised crime and armed groups, had been brought under the writ of the state and turned into crime-free zones. Threats, she said, continue to originate from the tri-border area and neighbouring provinces.
The chief minister claimed crime across Punjab had declined by up to 70 per cent, and argued that enforcement had to run alongside development spending. “Roads and projects are being built, but what is the benefit if someone’s animal, motorcycle or car is stolen, or a poor person loses his savings?” she asked, adding that she was taking decisions despite personal risks.
The chief minister used much of her address to defend the province’s enforcement drives, saying society too often treated laws as something merely symbolic and that enforcement had to be applied without discrimination.
On the anti-encroachment campaign, she said she had felt distressed when vendors were removed from roads and public spaces. “We did not simply remove the vendors; we provided them alternative places for their livelihood,” she said.
Helmet enforcement among motorcyclists, initially a difficult task, had shifted public behaviour — “Now hardly anyone is seen riding without a helmet” — a change she framed as mattering most to mothers who send their children out on motorcycles to earn a living. Work is under way on lane discipline in Lahore, she said, while zebra crossings are being introduced across Punjab and pedestrians also need education on road safety.
On Basant, banned after kite strings caused deaths and injuries, she said the decision to allow a regulated festival had been difficult but was vindicated. “By the grace of Allah, a safe Basant was held. After 5pm, when the permitted time ended, not a single kite was seen in the sky,” she said.
Turning to governance, the chief minister said the government had launched a decisive campaign against corrupt practices. “Wherever there is corruption, it will not be forgiven,” she said, adding that corruption had been detected in the Suthra Punjab programme and those involved suspended. “Even if corruption involves Rs100, we will pursue it.”
She said Punjab had comparatively low levels of corruption but that stronger action was being taken, including a citizens’ helpline and body cameras issued to police personnel. “If the people do not trust the government, we will fall behind,” she said.
Recalling last year’s rains, she said government agencies had worked jointly to manage the situation and that rainwater was again being drained this year despite a poor sewerage system. Complete rehabilitation of Punjab’s sewerage and drainage infrastructure, she said, would require “billions, rather than trillions” of rupees.
She also said crimes against minorities and mistreatment of members of minority communities could no longer be tolerated, and that some groups had used religion as a cover to spread hatred, forcing police to divert attention from other duties. Muharram, Eid Miladun Nabi and other religious occasions, she said, had passed peacefully.
The Lahore Times has sought comment from the Punjab Home Department on the operational scope and data-safeguard framework of the AI Intelligence Hub. Crime-reduction figures are as stated by the chief minister and have not been independently verified.
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