Representatives of Khasadar Force and Levies protest in support of their demands outside Peshawar Press Club on Monday. PHOTO: PPI
Khasadar were locally recruited and maintained tribal security forces, paid for through a stipend provided to the tribe by the federal government.
However, after the merger of tribal areas with the province, their future has become insecure.
Representatives of Khasadars marched in front of the Peshawar Press Club demanding that their force be absorbed in K-P police too like the Levies.
The protestors threatened to resort to a sit-in in Islamabad if their demand was not fulfilled. The president of the representative body of the Khasadar force members known as All FATA Khasadar Force, Syed Jalal Wazir addressing a press conference at Peshawar Press Club on Monday said that the tribal security force has been serving the area for 100 years.
“We fully support merger of tribal areas with K-P, but it has put our future at stake,” he said.
Wazir alleged that the interior ministry was sending the Khasadars on forced retirement due to which there was resentment in the ranks.
He said that the Levies and the Khasadar force have rendered great sacrifices in the war on terror, but they are being dismissed instead of being promoted.
He called on the PM Imran Khan to fulfil the promises he made to the force. He informed that there are 30,000 Khasadars in the merged districts who would become jobless if the force was disbanded.
He called for the force to be merged in the K-P police and for the locals to be inducted in police.
Wazir said that after the completion of the merger of Fata into K-P in May, they too should be merged into the police and be provided the facilities available to policemen. He alleged that the officials were being forcibly retired before their due age and their salaries were being stopped which must be released immediately.
He said that after the merger their seniority was being affected and this should be converted into police.
He demanded of the PM Imran, CM Mahmood Khan, Governor Shah Farman to convert the Khasadar to police with all the amenities available to policemen.
Wazir said if their demands were not fulfilled they will stage a sit-in Islamabad.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 22nd, 2019.
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