Law enforcement woes: K-P police marred by operational issues

Despite once earning various accolades for its valor and performance, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police force has had various troubles covering the region under its jurisdiction of law enforcement. When the Pakistan Tehreek E Insaf (PT) government came to power in the province in 2013, the department was put through various operational experiments in the name of reforms, most of which appears to have been limited to mentions on social media and in department files.

Actual change came at the hands of former Inspector General (IG) Nasir Khan Durrani, who amended the Police Act, to restructure the K-P police. Following Khan’s amendment, a bomb disposal unit was set up and police training schools were launched across the province to train officials in modern investigation methods. However, it appears in the eight years since then, police investigations have not been able to see any significant improvement, a testament of which are the hundreds of cases that have been pending for several years in the province; owing to poor investigation, untrained staff and inattention of the department higher-ups.

In 2013, the K-P government decided to launch a project called Safe City Peshawar, to curb crime and terrorism in the provincial capital. Through the project, the police aimed to improve security by installing more than 5,000 CCTV cameras, establishing modern control rooms, and activating various city patrol units and police stations. Due to the increase in population in Peshawar, however, the project has been hanging in an administrative limbo for almost over a decade. Whereas, police delegations from Safe City Lahore have held several meetings with the K-P Police on this mega project, but no progress could be made.

In addition to that, in 2019, it was announced that about 28,000 Levies and Khasadar Force personnel would become part of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police force. A formal notification in this regard was also issued, but despite the passing of three years since then, the police stationed in the province’s tribal sectors allegedly struggles in performing investigations and launching FIRs due to lack of understanding of the legal process.

Furthermore, police officials in tribal areas have also remained unable to set foot in their respective territory of jurisdiction for the past many years. According to one police officer, who has been on duty as DPO for more than 12 months in a tribal district, the tribal police lacks authority and seniority in the area. “In Bajaur, Mohmand, Khyber, Orakzai, Kurram, North Waziristan and South Waziristan, we have no officer above DSP rank.

There are only 16 DSPs in the force comprising of thousands of personnel while a proper service structure is also missing. Even though policing was accepted by the tribal people in erstwhile FATA, the police personnel were not provided competent salaries, martyr packages or a proper promotion system due to which the tribal police force is still faltering,” he maintained.

Khasadar officer Khasta Gul, who has been part of the force in the Mohmand tribal district for the past eight years said that he had joined the force in the previous system in which he used to get his salaries on time.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 4^th, 2022.