PESHAWAR, April 5: The NWFP government on Saturday decided to seek return of hundreds of Frontier Constabulary men from the insurgency-hit Balochistan to overcome its own law and order situation in the province, a highly- placed source said.

The source said the decision to seek the return of 34 platoons of the Frontier Constabulary -- a force mandated to police the boundary between the tribal areas and settled districts -- from Balochistan, was taken at a high-level meeting on law and order.

The meeting chaired by the new incumbent to the Frontier House, Chief Minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti, was attended by Chief Secretary Sahibzada Riaz Noor, Provincial Police Chief, Malik Naveed Khan, Commandant Frontier Corps, Inspector-General of the Frontier Constabulary, Secretary for Home, Capital City Police Chief and officials from other law-enforcement agencies.

ANP provincial president Afrasiab Khattak attended the meeting on special request.

The Home Secretary, Provincial Police Chief and the Inspector-General of the Frontier Constabulary briefed Chief Minister Hoti on the law and order situation in the province.

The meeting took stock of the prevailing situation in the province and the spillover effect of Talibanisation from tribal areas to adjoining settled districts and discussed ways and means to improve the situation. Various proposals were discussed in this regard, including measures to bring further improvement in the police in terms of infrastructure, training and equipment.

Another senior official said threadbare discussions were held on how to engage various armed and militant groups and an exercise had been initiated to identify their leaders and find ways and means to engage them and work out modalities and terms and conditions.

He said the federal government would be asked to repatriate the 34 FC platoons for which Balochistan was not even paying a dime, to help overcome the NWFP’s own security situation.

“This may not be a very big number but we need all that we have to deal with our own situation and strengthen the existing police force which in any case is way short of our own requirement,” the official said.

An official statement quoted Mr Hoti as highlighting law and order and providing a sense of security to people as his government’s No.1 priority.

He lauded the performance of law-enforcement agencies in such testing times and pledged to employ all available resources and make them available to law- enforcement agencies to ensure peace and security in the province.

He gave an assurance to make all efforts to improve the performance and capacity of the police force, coordinate and strengthen intelligence and provide necessary training and infrastructure to police. “Peace is our priority and therefore, all measures to ensure that will remain our top most priority,” the statement quoted the chief minister as saying.

He said stability in the NWFP was essential and linked to peace and stability in Pakistan, adding that provision of economic, financial and other assistance to the province was the need of the hour and critical to contain the situation. “We are determined to resolve issues through dialogue rather than use of force and soon we will take measures in this regard. This is a political issue and it cannot be resolved through military means,” the chief minister said.

He hoped that the federal government would lend its crucial support to the province in this regard. Mr Hoti directed the participants to prepare a workable plan and prioritise their requirements in accordance with the existing ground realities to overcome the security challenges.

The meeting also decided to approach the federal government for implementation of a developmental plan for the NWFP and preparing a plan to provide jobs to people of remote areas to wean them away from militancy.