PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police department will begin the police station-based budgeting in the next financial year.

Provincial police chief Dr Sanaullah Abbasi told Dawn that the government had approved the proposal to give financial powers to the station house officers (SHOs) and it had been notified.

He said a proposal to create 500 vacancies of the accountants for the purpose had also been approved, while the provincial public service commission had been tasked with making recruitment.

“The recruitment is pending due to burden on the commission,” he said.

The police chief said making SHOs drawing and disbursing officer was a landmark achievement.

He said police stations would get separate funds for themselves in the upcoming budget.

Dr Abbasi said besides financial de-centralisation, he had also delegated the appointment powers to a committee authorised to make important appointments, including those of district police officers.

Police chief says 500 accountants to be hired for police station-based budgeting

He said the police department had also proposed an increase in investigation and fuel ceilings hoping the incentive would improve the quality of investigations.

The police chief wondered how a station house officer could deliver the goods with just 20 litres of petrol at his disposal.

He said the police department was actively working on the activation of public safety commissions and regional complaint commissions in line with the KP Police Act, 2017.

Dr Abbasi said the police department had prepared a proposal seeking amendment by the government to some sections of the KP Police Act, 2017, which had made judiciary part of the scrutiny committees for those bodies.

He said the department had proposed the replacement of the judiciary’s representatives in scrutiny committees with independent members or parliamentarians.

“The proposal has got stuck in the slow lane due to Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.

Regarding policing in the merged tribal districts, the police chief said around 26,000 Khasadar and Levies personnel had been merged with the police, while the absorption of the remaining 3,000 was in process.

He said Fata had recorded little governance but following merger with the province, it was on the way of stabilisation.

Dr Abbasi said the police were registering FIRs in the region and recently, the state became party in an honour killing case in North Waziristan tribal district for the first time in history.

He, however, said the police needed to work more to bring the region under the effective policing.

Regarding the incidents of target-killings in Waziristan tribal districts, the police chief said the number of such cases had dropped significantly but in many cases, terrorism and personal issues were interlinked.

Regarding terror outlook in merged districts, he said it was mostly linked with the border situation but the ongoing border fencing was playing a crucial role in bringing down terrorist threats.

He said the border fencing, work on which had been completed 80-90 per cent, would significantly reduce terrorist attacks.

Dr Abbasi said both Malakand Levies’ merger with the police and the extension of Customs Act to the region were due.“Exemption from regular laws of the land creates grey areas, which is not a good thing and should be done away with,” he said.

The police chief said the department was working against the remnants of militants in Malakand region and recently arrested people involved in target killings.

He said Covid-19 was pushing the department to the tech-driven policing and in the post-pandemic world, such technologies would play an important role in that respect.

Dr Abbasi said the incidence of street crime had reduced significantly during the coronavirus-induced lockdown.

He said the virus had so far infected 171 police personnel across the province and around 50 of them had recovered from it.

The police chief said the enforcement of social distancing SOPs to stem the spread of coronavirus was a big challenge for the police department.

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2020