PESHAWAR, July 11: A Rs1.2 billion plan to reorganize the law enforcement agencies in Fata (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) has been finalized.

Work on the plan will be initiated whenever the federal government releases the amount to the department concerned, a senior official told Dawn on Thursday.

Another high-ranking official said, as the plan was linked with the devolution of power in Fata, therefore the government would execute it before the holding of local bodies elections in tribal areas.

According to an official statement, the reorganization was discussed at a high-level meeting presided over by NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah here on Thursday at the Governor’s House.

Secretary Fata (Security) Brig Mohammad Shah, through a detailed presentation, highlighted various aspects of the plan, saying that the process would cost Rs1.2 billion as non-recurring expenditures. After its implementation, the plan would make a effective force available with the political administrations for maintenance of law and order and other related responsibilities in the tribal region.

Initially, a contingent of Khasadars comprising 50 and 10 from each agency and Frontier regions respectively will be imparted a three-month training, besides providing them with proper uniform, weapons and communication system, he told the meeting.

Governor Iftikhar Hussain Shah on the occasion said that slowly but gradually, the Khasadar force would be made an effective and trained force to work as an internal law enforcement apparatus in the respective tribal areas. But he clarified that the plan would have no affect on the existing Khasadars.

This reorganization, the governor observed, would help ease the burden on the law enforcement agencies working in Fata to a great extent. Before going for the training process, arrangements for their accommodation, rationing, uniform, weapons, transport and communication must be ensured, the governor stressed.

He termed the plan viable for implementation, directing the authorities to move on as soon as the required funds were made available.