Pakistan’s tribal region to get its first police force
Govt spokesman says new, 22,000-strong force to be recruited
The government of Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
(KP) province will recruit a 22,000-strong police force to ensure security in seven tribal districts that were merged last year into the political and legal mainstream of the country, a government spokesman said.
Pakistan’s Parliament adopted a constitutional amendment in May last year giving equal rights to millions of people in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
The measure has paved way for the merger of the seven tribal districts, which formerly came under the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), with KP province, nullifying a draconian colonial-era law that had denied people of these areas basic legal rights and prescribed collective punishment against entire tribes for offenses committed by an individual.
“Initially, we plan to recruit 6,000 police, plus a 2,000-strong levy force, for the tribal districts,” Ajmal Wazir, a provincial government spokesman, told Arab News in an interview on Saturday, adding that peace and better security were the government’s top priority in the newly integrated tribal districts.
“A committee, to be headed by the chief secretary and inspector general of police, will complete the police recruitment and deployment process,” he said.
For years, insurgents, including the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, were able to use the tribal areas to train and launch attacks in Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan because the region had no government writ. Over the past decade, Pakistan’s military has launched several military operations in FATA, displacing many people who now live in camps in areas just outside the tribal regions.
Wazir said provincial departments had been directed to draft lists of existing staff and equipment so that the need for additional resources could be determined.
Educated residents in the tribal region would not have as many educational and age requirements for recruitment in various departments, he added.
Wazir said Rehmat Khan Mehsud, a retired additional inspectorgeneral of police, had suggested using upper subordinate officers from the adjacent areas, as well as tribal youth, for the new police force. He said he was certain the new force would be able to ensure security because locals genuinely wanted peace to prevail.
“The KP government has allocated more than $360 million to promote sports, culture and tourism in the region,” Wazir said, adding that from February, 10 sports activities would be launched throughout the tribal districts to help forge links among all the newly merged areas.