Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will fill 17,000 police posts without delay and spend Rs70 billion on the force this year, Governor Faisal Karim Kundi said after a high-level security briefing at the Governor House in Peshawar on Saturday. The province will also spend Rs10.3 billion on the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) and install anti-drone systems in three southern districts.
The briefing put a number on a shortage the governor had flagged before. Mr Kundi corrected earlier figures at the meeting, saying the police faced not 10,000 but 17,000 vacant posts. “There is no other option; we will win the war against terrorism,” he said.
Filling 17,000 police posts
Provincial Home Secretary Amjad Ali Khan told the meeting that more than 10,000 police positions and 638 CTD posts remain vacant. The province plans to bring the police’s 15 per cent manpower shortfall down to five per cent.
The briefing also laid bare years of underfunding. The previous administration released only Rs1 billion of Rs6.5 billion allocated for the force. For the merged districts, the police budget in earlier regimes stood at 3.2 per cent. For 22 districts, Rs6.4 billion had been earmarked but only Rs1 billion released.
Mr Khan said a new strategy had been drawn up to bring terrorism under control. Intelligence-based operations would increase, and facilitators of terrorists would be arrested.
Two years of losses
The scale of the challenge came through in the figures shared at the briefing. Over the past two years, 1,003 military personnel, 627 police personnel and 808 civilians have been martyred in the province, while 3,788 terrorists were killed in security operations.
The anti-drone systems will go to Dera Ismail Khan, Lakki Marwat and Bannu, three districts facing rising terrorist threats. They are meant to counter drones sent across the border, which the governor blamed on elements in Afghanistan. He accused those elements of facilitating India and Israel, and said the province would press the federal government for its due share of resources.
The governor, his advisers, the chief secretary, senior police and bureaucratic officials, and representatives of other security agencies attended the session. Mr Kundi said the state would wage an all-out war against those who fight against it. The province has also said trade with Afghanistan will stay shut until attacks from Afghan soil stop, which underlines how security shapes every decision in the province.
From promise to funded plan
The briefing turns an earlier promise into a funded plan. The governor first put the vacancy figure at around 17,000 in October, and on Nov 5 he announced a Rs40 billion package for police needs in the Bannu, Malakand and Dera Ismail Khan divisions, covering police stations, check posts and offices. The Rs40 billion package and the vacancy figure were announced in Dera Ismail Khan.
The News reported further detail from the same briefing, including a plan to raise CTD capacity from 12 per cent to 37 per cent and overall police capacity to 75 per cent. Additional Inspector General Abbas Ahsan told the briefing that the decision had been taken to fill the 17,000 vacant positions to overcome the shortage of manpower.
The urgency is clear from the province’s recent losses. A bomb disposal officer was martyred in South Waziristan earlier this week while defusing explosives, a reminder of the risks police personnel face every day. The Peshawar High Court has also struck off petitions against the provincial emergency, which shapes the legal backdrop for the current administration.
Mr Kundi also spoke about politics. He said 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, and said the good initiatives of the previous government would continue.
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 he said would now change.
Frequently asked questions
How many police posts are vacant in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa?
The governor said 17,000 police posts are vacant, correcting an earlier figure of 10,000. More than 10,000 police positions and 638 CTD posts remain vacant, according to the provincial home secretary.
How much will the province spend on the police?
The current provincial government has pledged Rs70 billion for the police and Rs10.3 billion for the Counter-Terrorism Department this year.
Where will anti-drone systems be installed?
Anti-drone systems will be installed in Dera Ismail Khan, Lakki Marwat and Bannu to counter rising terrorist threats in the southern districts.
Why is the force short of staff and funds?
Officials told the briefing that the previous administration released only Rs1 billion of Rs6.5 billion allocated for the force, and the police budget for the merged districts stood at just 3.2 per cent in earlier regimes.
