The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government has prepared a plan to spend approximately Rs70 billion to address the growing threats of terrorism and overcome the shortage of manpower, financial resources, and modern technology faced by the police. The plan includes filling 17,000 vacant police posts, increasing the capacity of the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) from 12 per cent to 37 per cent, and raising the overall capacity of the police to 75 per cent.

It has also been decided to establish faceless Anti-Terrorism Courts (ATCs) for the trial of terrorists, convert several cities into Safe Cities, establish special centres in 10 districts, and accelerate intelligence-based operations (IBOs). An amount of Rs59.8 billion will be spent on police infrastructure, while Rs10.3 billion will be allocated to the CTD.

These details emerged during an important briefing by the KP Home Department on the law and order situation, terrorism threats, existing capacity of the police, challenges faced by security institutions, and future strategy. The briefing was attended by the KP governor, advisers, chief secretary, secretaries of all departments, and senior police officers.

Home Secretary Amjad Ali Khan gave a detailed presentation on the financial and administrative difficulties faced by the police, vacant positions, shortages of modern equipment, CTD capacity, and resources required by security institutions. The briefing revealed that in the past, only 3.2 per cent of the provincial budget was allocated to the police, which was insufficient in view of current terrorism threats and the increasing responsibilities of the force.

A large number of vacant posts have resulted in a severe shortage of manpower, while police capacity also remains below the required level in terms of modern security requirements. Additional IG Abbas Ahsan said that it has been decided to fill 17,000 vacant positions to overcome the shortage of police manpower, while intelligence-based operations (IBOs) will also be accelerated.