KP Police authorities want police force in merged districts within six months

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police authorities have proposed that the process of moving police into the merged tribal districts should be completed within six months in three different phases instead of the proposed one-year timeframe, a source told The News.

The force conveyed that the proposal of taking over all the districts simultaneously may also be evaluated. The federal government, after a recent meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, had set a timeframe for completing the process of setting up of courts and moving the police force into the merged districts within one year. The timeframe that the federal government had set include enacting the Local Governments Law in the merged districts within six months, adding the tribal regions to the KP budget in five months and removing deficiencies and provision of all the required staff in the Education and Health within three months.

“The KP Police authorities in a letter to the KP and the federal government proposed that the sequel of moving police into the merged districts be broken in three steps with two months interval so that the police signature (through skeleton staff) is in all these districts within six months. The force also told the government that the proposal of taking over all districts simultaneously may also be evaluated,” a source said while quoting from an official letter of the Central Police Office to the federal and provincial governments.

The federal government had tasked the KP inspector general of police along with home secretary to complete moving the force into the merged district in a sequential manner in one year. Besides, secretary States and Frontier Regions and home secretary were tasked to recruit 2,200 law enforcers in consultation with IGP within three months. It also tasked the IGP to train the existing personnel in six months. The government suggested induction of deputy superintendent of police (DSPs), inspectors and sub-inspectors for the merged tribal districts from their respective areas for the quick impact of job creation and enabling the indigenous population to take ownership of the force.

“The establishment committee has worked on this subject and suggested that under the rules only ASPs (or DSPs), ASIs and constables can be recruited into the force while recruitment of inspectors and sub-inspectors is not permissible under the rules,” a source quoted from the letter of DIG Headquarters of the KP Police to the government.

The letter stated that it would hamper the promotion prospects of the eligible Levies personnel who are allowed 50 to 75 percent quota for promotion under the Police Act in different ranks.

“About the training of the Levies, a special committee under the DIG Training has done the groundwork and they have suggested a skeleton staff of DPO along with nine officials in each district to complete Training Need Analysis and recommend types of personnel for each course,” the DIG Headquarters wrote to the government. A recent meeting of the Apex Committee, which comprises the governor and chief minister of KP, the Corps Commander Peshawar and senior civil and military officers, decided to absorb 12,000 Levies personnel and 18,000 Khassadars in the KP Police and create another 6,000 posts in the force to meet the law and order challenges. The meeting took a number of decisions to expedite the process of merger of erstwhile Fata with KP. The spokesman for the KP government Ajmal Khan Wazir told The News that committees constituted for the merged districts had already started working and accelerated their work.He added the government was very clear that all the merged districts would have the same system of government like other districts of the province and the country.