The group of businessmen called the Citizens Police Liaisoning Committee has wide powers bestowed by the government: It has magisterial authority which means they can summon people, register FIRs, check police lock-ups and registers and maintain criminal records, issue a letter for medical examination in cases of torture and hire lawyers to settle petty disputes. They are armed with the latest gizmos available in the world for crime detection and prevention and have a full-fledged secretariat with a staff of 70 and offices in five districts with seven members each. ``The trick is to stay two steps ahead of the criminal and a databank helps us get into the mind of the criminal,'' said Yusuf. They have a digitalised map of the city, jail records and crime analysis which means that on the computer they have a complete background of a listed criminal, his aliases, modus-operandi, his companions in jail, his guarantors and his background.

``We feel that once the criminal is in jail for say, car theft, he is not sitting idle, he is teaching the trick to his fellowmates. Jails are a great university for crime and we have to keep a track of all the graduates,'' he said.

It is the falling crime graph especially in cases of abduction, where the success was 100 per cent which proved their effectiveness. Divorce cases, labour disputes and car theft cases were expedited and solved. Set up in 1989 with the initiative of the then governor Faqruddin Ibrahim, the group was an antidote for the outdated Police Act of 1861 and the growing lack of trust in the police. It began with contributions by businessmen. The first thing they did was to win the trust of the local police. They painted the police stations an off-white instead of the drab yellow. They installed computers, water-coolers, tubelights and indoor plants in the police station. Don't the police consider them as interfering busybodies? ``No. One, we have been institutionalised and given legal powers. The other thing was that we started with humanising the police station which won their confidence,'' said Yusuf, who is also a leading industrialist.

Its growing popularity attracted money from UNDP and other foreign funding agencies. They were featured on the Beeb.

The credibility built over years has won Yusuf the highest civil award -- the Sitaare Shujaat in 1993 and the group was nominated for the UN civil society award. Why is it not replicated in other districts of Pakistan? ``Once a Governor made the mistake of doing something right. Its success discourages those who do not want to share power,'' he explained.