K-P police seek additional Rs240m for march security

Additional contingents of police and FC will be deputed along the near 200km-stretch from Peshawar to Islamabad


​ Our Correspondent October 16, 2019
PHOTO: FILE PHOTO

PESHAWAR: With the government bracing itself for a march by opposition parties towards the end of the month, the provincial police department has sought additional funds of Rs240 million to ensure security for the ‘Azadi March’.

Sources within the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) police and finance departments have told The Express Tribune that the provincial government has consulted all security departments about the security measures which need to be undertaken for the march which is expected to start in Peshawar before moving towards the federal capital, nearly 200 kilometres away.

To provide security to and manage the march — being led by the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) — sources said that they will require around 80 platoons of the police and 40 platoons of the Frontier Constabulary along the route apart from contingents stationed at the entry and exit points of the province. The security forces also intend to keep the main highways including the Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway, the Grand Trunk (GT) Road and other side roads closed for the duration of the march.

In this regard, they said that the police department has handed over a written request for Rs240 million for mobilising the requisite police and FC forces. The money will also pay for providing these forces with food, shelter and uniforms for the duration of the march.

This sum, officials say, is apart from the money already allocated for the provincial police department for the financial year 2019-20.

‘No private militia’

Provincial Information Minister Shaukat Yousafzai has warned the JUI-F and its supporters who have been donning Khaki uniform that they will be treated as per the law and that no one will be allowed to form a militia or make kids human shields for their heinous political gains.

Addressing the media at the Gulbahar City Girls College in Peshawar on Tuesday, Yousafzai said that under Article 265 of the Constitution, no one is allowed to form any sort of militia and that no one will be allowed to use their political agenda in the country.

He proceeded to warn all those who come to the march with a private force or militia they will be treated as per the law.

“This is not a march to bring political stability, it is a tactic to save the corrupt and it should be clear that no one will be speared accountability under the law,” Yousafzai said, adding that if the masses desire that the provincial and federal governments step-down, they will oblige.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 16th, 2019.

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