Federal govt appoints Akhtar Hayat as KP police chief replacing Moazzam Ansari

The federal government on Thursday replaced Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Inspector General (IG) Police Moazzam Ansari with BS-21 officer Akhtar Hayat — who has been serving in the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) until now.

This development was confirmed by an official statement issued by the cabinet secretariat and signed by Deputy Secretary to the Government of Pakistan Majid Mohsin Panhwar.

The statement said, “With the approval of the federal government, Mr Akhtar Hayat, a BS-21 Officer of Police Service of Pakistan, presently serving in Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), under Interior Division is transferred and posted as Provincial Police Officer (PPO) Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, under Section 10 of the Civil Servants Act, 1973, with immediate effect and until further orders.”

Hayat is set to replace Moazzam Ansari, who has been serving as the IG of the northern province since June 2021.

The development came not long after a deadly blast on Police Lines mosque in Peshawar which led to the martyrdom of scores of people and injured more than 200 people — most of whom were policemen offering Zohr prayer at a mosque.

With terrorism on the rise across the country, particularly in KP, threats of attacks amid polls are being touted as a possibility by even law enforcers themselves.

Ansari, on February 6, warned that the threat of terrorism could not be ruled out during the upcoming election in the province where terrorism has been steadily on the rise once more.

“It cannot be presumed that the next elections will be completely peaceful,” Ansari said in a meeting on KP polls presided over by Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja.

The then-IG had said that "there is a shortfall of 57,000 police personnel" for security during the polls.