Govt moves to make public safety bodies functional.

PESHAWAR -- Three years after the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police Act, 2017, promised the formation of the departmental and public safety bodies to check the police's excesses, the provincial government on Friday decided to make necessary amendments to the law to make those bodies operational.

The provincial assembly had passed the law granting operational autonomy to the police department in Jan 2017. However, the regional police complaint authorities and provincial and district public safety and police complaints commissions envisioned in the law for public oversight of the department didn't see the light of the day.

On Friday, provincial law minister Sultan Mohammad Khan chaired a meeting on the matter. The meeting was attended by KP police chief Dr Sanaullah Abbasi and other police officials.

Mr Sultan told Dawn that the KP Police Act, 2017, required minor tweaking to make these bodies operational.

He said the enactment of the legislation had made the police department independent but it provided for public oversight of the department through public safety bodies.

Minister says KP Police Act to be amended for the purpose

The minister said unfortunately, those bodies couldn't be formed for one reason or the other.

He said the meeting was briefed by the provincial police chief about how to make those bodies functional.

Mr Sultan said another meeting would take place to make a final decision on the matter. He said the KP Police Act 2017 would be amended to make those bodies functional.

The minister said the amendments would also align the law with the new local government law, where the district tier had been abolished.

He said the representatives of the district tier were represented in the scrutiny committees and that there existed only tehsil tier after the abolition of the district.

On March 31, 2018, the then Peshawar High Court Bar Association...