K-P to fill 17,000 vacant police posts

Governor House briefing reveals past underfunding; anti-drone systems for southern districts

PESHAWAR:

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa faces a critical shortage of 17,000 vacant police posts while the previous administration released only one billion rupees out of the allocated Rs6.5 billion for the force, officials disclosed on Saturday.

The current provincial government has pledged Rs70 billion for the police and Rs10.3 billion for the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) this year, alongside the installation of anti-drone systems in Dera Ismail Khan, Lakki Marwat and Bannu to counter rising terrorist threats.

These details emerged during a high-level security briefing held at the Governor's House in Peshawar. Governor Faisal Karim Kundi, his advisors, the chief secretary, senior police and bureaucratic officials, and representatives of other security agencies attended the session.

Provincial Home Secretary Amjad Ali Khan informed the meeting that a new strategy had been formulated to bring terrorism under control. He said the previous provincial government had failed to support the fight against terrorism or the return of Afghan refugees. In earlier regimes, the police budget for the merged districts stood at a mere 3.2 per cent. More than 10,000 police positions and 638 CTD posts remain vacant. For 22 districts the previous administration had earmarked Rs6.4 billion but released only one billion.

Over the past two years, 3,788 terrorists were killed while 1,200 personnel of law-enforcement agencies laid down their lives. The secretary announced that intelligence-based operations (IBOs) would be increased and facilitators of terrorists would be arrested. The present government, he added, would bring the police's 15 per cent manpower shortfall down to five per cent.

Kundi declared that the state would wage an all-out war against those who fight against it. He accused elements in Afghanistan of facilitating India and Israel and of sending drones across the border. The province, he said, would press the federal government for its due share of resources.

Referring to political figures, the governor remarked that Maulana Fazlur Rehman was entitled to his views but work could not be halted on that account. He criticised those who send other people's children for jihad while dispatching their own to Europe and Turkey. The good initiatives of the previous government would be continued, he assured.

Governor Kundi corrected earlier figures, stating that the police faced not 10,000 but 17,000 vacant posts, which would be filled without delay. "There is no other option; we will win the war against terrorism," he asserted. The previous government, he charged, had withheld support from the state in the anti-terror campaign. The police would now receive complete backing, modern weapons, intensified IBOs and full political ownership.

He noted that in the past Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Ali Amin Gandapur could not move freely after dusk in their own areas, a situation that would now change. The briefing underlined a clear shift toward greater resources, manpower and operational resolve to restore lasting peace in the province.