PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Tuesday announced measures to reform the provincial police system, including bar on the people’s detention in police stations without evidence of their wrongdoing and removal of inefficient officers.

According to provincial information minister Shaukat Ali Yousafzai, the measures will make police efficient and thus, helping them regain public confidence.

After a meeting of the cabinet, which lasted over five years with Chief Minister Pervez Khattak in the chair, the minister told reporters that the provincial home secretary and the police officer briefed participants on the law and order situation and governance.

He said issues related to police were also discussed by participants, who decided that the police’s intelligence would be strengthened and that major chunk of the budget allocated for the department would be spent on police stations.

The minister said the cabinet expressed dissatisfaction with the performance of the police’s investigation wing and called for improvement in its performance.

“The cabinet authorised the provincial police chief to identify inefficient officers in the force so that they could be replaced with competent officers. Also, the federal government will be requested to send talented officers to the province,” he said.

Mr Yousafzai said several measures were approved to reform the current ‘thana culture’ in the province and that one of them was that police would not keep people in the police stations’ lockups without evidence of their wrongdoing. He said police officials would work in two shifts and that there would be a complete ban on shoulder promotion in the department.

The minister said the relevant police stations would gather fingerprints of suspected persons.

He said the tenure of station house officers and other field officers would be determined, while tenure of moharrar (reader) in police station had been restricted to one year.

Mr Yousafzai said it had been decided that tenure of the post of moharrar had been fixed for five years and that there would be special desks in every police station for women to lodge complaints.

He said training imparted to recruits at training centres could not meet requirements of the present situation, especially counter terrorism, and therefore, the cabinet approved to hire new instructors.

The minister said the provincial government would request the centre to repatriate platoons of Frontier Constabulary to improve security situation in settled areas adjacent to the tribal agencies.

“It will reduce pressure on police,” he said.

Mr Yousafzai said warden system would be introduced in cities to cope with traffic problems, while traffic police would not stop drivers on the roads to check their vehicle documents.

“If any police official is found violating this order, he will be punished. In case, the driver breaks traffic law, only then the police can stop him or her for giving challan on the spot,” he said.

The minister said the cabinet approved right to information ordinance that would be promulgated within next two to three days.

He said for the purpose, the government would appoint the information commissioner to facilitate the general public.

Mr Yousafzai said the procedure and legal requirements for the formation of accountability commission would be finalised by July 15.

He said the government would introduce uniform education system from March 2014 across the province and working group would give its recommendation by July 25, while working groups had been set up to recommend reforms in local government and health departments.

The minister said the cabinet had decided to give free food to every patient and his attendants in the government hospitals.

“This will help some 12,000 patients and their attendants daily,” he said.

Mr Yousafzai said the government would grant autonomy to the tehsil and district hospitals. He said a special task force had been set up to work in power and energy sector. The minister said double carriageway from motorway junction to Hayatabad Town would be constructed, while parks in Peshawar would be rehabilitated properly. He said the local government would outsource the sanitation system of the provincial capital.