PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police have sought the services of women employees of education, health and social welfare departments to perform duties alongside the security personnel during Muharram.

In this connection, the provincial home and tribal affairs department has sent letters to the secretaries of elementary and secondary education, health and social welfare departments to place the required women staff at the disposal of the provincial police chief.

“It is requested that women strength may kindly be placed at the disposal of the police chief for assigning them special duties during Muharram,” reads the home department letter.

The provincial police had requested the home department to provide 300 women for security duty in Peshawar, 60 for Hangu, 20 for Dera Ismail Khan and 30 for Tank, according to official documents.

These women employees are supposed to perform body search of their gender.

When contacted, a senior official of the elementary and secondary education department told Dawn that the police required women employees in four districts - Peshawar, Hangu, DI Khan and Tank. “We don’t know what type of duty the teachers will perform during Muharram. We are only communicated by the high-ups to nominate women teachers in the four districts for performing duties,” the official said.

Meanwhile, president All Primary Teachers Association, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azizullah told Dawn that the women teachers were not recruited in the education department for performing duties alongside the security personnel. “It is duty of the police and other law enforcement agencies to maintain law and order, and not of the teachers,” he made clear.

The women teachers have not got any training to perform security-related duty, he said, and warned that the education department’s employees would take to the streets if the government forced the women teachers to perform security duty.

Published in Dawn, August 14th, 2021