QUETTA: The Balochistan cabinet has approved a four-year plan to re-organise the Levies Force in a bid to turn it into a professional and motivated law-enforcement agency.

The decision was taken a meeting held here on Tuesday with Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan Alyani in the chair. The meeting which continued for several hours discussed recommendations submitted by Levies Force Director General Tariqur Rehman.

The Levies Force re-organisation plan would cost Rs8 billion and would be completed in four phases, according to sources.

The cabinet decided that after reviewing the recommendations, a final decision about implementation of the plan would be made in the next meeting of the cabinet.

Briefing the cabinet, Mr Rehman said that “there is a need to develop the Levies Force on modern lines and make it an effective force” so that it could meet the security challenges of the province.

He proposed to establish new wings of Levies Force for counter-terrorism, digital communication, security for China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects, intelligence and investigation, besides raising a quick response force and establishing a bomb disposal squad.

The DG said that with the strength of 23,132 personnel Levies Force was responsible for controlling 90 per cent areas of Balochistan. As many as 13,227 personnel have received modern combat training. He said 6,560 personnel of the Federal Levies were also working in Balochistan.

The cabinet decided to approach the federal government for recruitment of 2,000 more Federal Levies personnel for Balochistan.

It observed that work on development projects under the CPEC was in progress which had increased the burden on security institutions. Therefore, the federal government should increase the number of Federal Levies personnel for Balochistan.

The cabinet also gave approval for declaring Gwadar completely ‘A’ area where police would be responsible for maintaining law and order.

The cabinet also approved establishment of an institute of cardiology in Quetta with the cooperation of Pakistan Army. The project will be completed in 18 months under the supervision of the army which would allot land for the hospital.

The cabinet also approved a draft bill for the establishment of Gwadar University which will be moved in the provincial assembly during its next session. The provincial government has allotted 500 acres of land for the project while the federal government would provide Rs5bn for it.

The education department was directed to take immediate measures for restarting academic activities in non-functional polytechnic, cadet and residential colleges and speed up work on under-construction buildings for colleges.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2018