PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur on Wednesday directed the early completion of the recruitment and vehicle procurement process in the police force.

“Maintaining law and order in the province is among the top priorities of my government,” Mr Gandapur said while speaking at a high-level meeting on Wednesday, according to a statement issued here.

He said all necessary resources would be made available to address the challenges facing the police force. “The police must adopt unconventional approaches in view of the emerging challenges,” he added.

Chief secretary Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry, additional chief secretary home Abid Majeed, acting IGP and other senior officials were in attendance.

Asks police to adopt unconventional approaches to deal with challenges

The authorities concerned briefed the chief minister on various initiatives such as the creation of new positions, recruitment process and procurement of vehicles to strengthen the police force.

The meeting was informed that keeping in view the current law and order situation, 1,356 new posts of various ranks in police department had been created for the southern districts of the province.

Among these, the recruitment process for 1,200 constables was in its final stages, and appointment letters would be issued soon. Moreover, recruitment on the positions of sub-inspector, assistant sub-inspector and head constable was being carried out as per the standard procedures.

The chief minister was further informed that as per his directives, the quota for the children of police martyrs had been increased from five per cent to 12.5pc for recruitment as assistant sub-inspectors. And under the new quota, 246 appointments had so far been made.

The meeting was also informed that a case for recruitment on 1,153 posts under the in-service quota had been submitted to the Public Service Commission. Similarly, the case for recruitment on 631 ASIs under the 25pc quota had also been forwarded to the commission.

Furthermore, the procurement process for police vehicles with estimated cost of Rs802 million was in progress, under which, 34 double cabins, 15 single cabins, 30 other single cabin vehicles, and 15 motorcycles had been purchased so far. The bulletproofing of 79 single cabin 4x4 vehicles, costing Rs760 million was also in progress.

Meanwhile, another meeting held here on Wednesday with Mr Gandapur in the chair reviewed the progress on the launch of various welfare initiatives, including Ehsaas Naujwan Rozgar Scheme, Ehsaas Hunar Programme, Ehsaas Apna Ghar Scheme, and Ehsaas Rozgar Programme.

The meeting decided that all these programmes would be launched by December 1, 2024.

The meeting was informed that under the Ehsaas Naujwan Rozgar Scheme, soft loans ranging from Rs1 million to Rs10 million would be provided to youth.

Similarly, the Ehsaas Hunar Programme would offer interest-free loans up to Rs500,000 to graduates or diploma/certificate holders from technical and vocational institutions.

Under the Ehsaas Apna Ghar Scheme, interest-free loans will be provided to low-income people for building new homes or extending/renovating the existing ones.

The Ehsaas Rozgar (microfinance) Scheme will offer interest-free loans for starting new businesses or expanding existing ones.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2024