PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has criticised the federal government for deploying more platoons of the paramilitary Frontier Constabulary outside the province and questioned the rationale for the move despite security challenges in the province.

“The law and order situation in our province is volatile, so more police and FC personnel are required to maintain peace, but regrettably, the federal government, instead of helping us, requisitioned the force, raised to maintain peace in KP, for deployment outside the province,” adviser to the chief minister on information and public relations Barrister Mohammad Ali Saif told Dawn.

Official sources claimed that 30 FC platoons were sent to Islamabad at the request of the interior ministry ahead of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s march on Nov 24 protest in the federal capital.

They insisted that the personnel were recalled from the areas with “low threat of militant attacks,” mostly northern parts of the province.

CM aide says move is questionable due to volatile law and order situation in KP

The sources said that after FC platoons were requisitioned, authorities identified such areas before pulling out FC platoons from there and dispatching them to Islamabad.

They added that FC troops were deployed outside the province whenever a requisition came.

The sources said that out of around 560 platoons of the paramilitary force, many platoons had already been serving outside the province in Gilgit-Baltistan, Karachi and Islamabad, with most tasked with protecting foreign missions.

They also said that normally, an FC platoon consisted of 43 personnel, but at times, the number went beyond 50 or dropped down to around 30.

Mr Saif also said that it was the responsibility of the federal government to counter militancy in the country but Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government had miserably failed to do so and maintain peace.

“The federal government is not fulfilling its responsibilities regarding law and order,” he said.

The aide to the chief minister said that managing border security and checking militant infiltration into the country was the job of the federal government and not the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s.

He insisted that the federal capital was under siege with the KP government’s resources beingunlawfullyused against the residents.

“The resources of our province are being used against the residents,” he said, flaying the relocation of 30 FC platoons from KP to Islamabad.

Mr Saif said that the provincial government faced multiple issues, including a delicate law and order situation, so the federal government should support it rather than accuse it of failing to protect public life and property.

He said that the issue of militancy in KP was far more serious than robberies and required corrective measures by the federal government for national security.

“We condemn the wrongful use of our [KP’s] resources and that, too, to protect an illegitimate [federal] government,” he said.

The chief minister’s adviser said it was the constitutional right of citizens to hold peaceful protests anywhere in the country.

He said that the PTI had never threatened peace but even then, the shipping containers were placed on roads across the federal capital to block its peaceful protest on Nov 24.

“The roads to Islamabad have been barricaded by the fascist federal government,” he said.

Published in Dawn, November 23rd, 2024