PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mohammad Sohail Afridi on Thursday directed police to resist unlawful directions and remain focused on their professional responsibilities.

Chairing a meeting on law and order, he termed the events of past four or five days as “extremely regrettable”, according to a statement. The meeting was also attended by IGP Zulfiqar Hameed and other senior police officers.

The chief minister alleged that instead of eliminating terrorism, the priority of the “fake government” at the centre had become to eliminate PTI. “Our interest is not to eliminate any political party. Our priority is to combat terrorism,” he said.

He said that police could not be diverted from the fight against terrorism to serve anyone’s political objectives. “If police also become focused on eliminating a political party, where will the people of KP go?” he questioned.

Expresses concern over delay in provision of armoured vehicles to KP

The chief minister said that since taking oath on Oct 15, 2025, he had not issued any unlawful or improper directive to any police officer, ordered political or personal victimisation, or instructed registration of a fake FIR against anyone.

“When I, as chief executive, do not give police unlawful orders, no one else has the right to give them such orders either. It is not the duty of any police officer to obey an unlawful order. If an unlawful order comes from me or anyone else, police must learn to say no,” he said.

Mr Afridi recalled that on 8 February 2024, police and civil administration had refused to comply with unlawful orders and had protected the public mandate.

“Police should resist unlawful orders today as well,” he said. He said that the political movement being undertaken by the provincial government was peaceful.

“We are not launching an armed struggle or an assault. We are going to hold a peaceful protest,” said the chief minister. He said that those ordering police to stop peaceful protests should be told to remove the constitutional provision guaranteeing the right of assembly.

“As long as the right of assembly exists in the Constitution, we will continue to protest,” he said. He said that the provincial cabinet had approved the Police Act the previous day and further amendments could be made when the legislation was taken up by provincial assembly. He added that if any federal institution attempted to use police for political victimisation, the provincial government would take action on the matter.

Since assuming the office of chief minister on 15 October 2025, he said, the provincial government had provided unprecedented financial resources to police. In the previous year, an additional Rs35 billion was provided to police over and above the annual budget, while the police budget for the current year had been increased from Rs80 billion to Rs190 billion, he added.

Expressing concern over delay in provision of equipment to provincial government despite payment, Mr Afridi said that Heavy Industries Taxila (HIT) was an institution under the military and the KP government had made the required payment last year. Despite this, he said, the armoured vehicles required for provincial police had not yet been provided.

“Modern armoured vehicles have been prepared and provided for Islamabad, but the KP police have still not received their vehicles,” he said.

The chief minister said that he told them that armoured vehicles being provided to Islamabad would only be used against PTI, therefore, those should be provided to KP police so they could effectively counter terrorism.

He said that the KP government had also made payments to National Radio Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC) for jammers and drone defence systems. He called upon NRTC and Heavy Industries Taxila (HIT) to provide jammers, armoured vehicles and other essential equipment to KP police at the earliest so that the force had the resources required for effectively fighting terrorism.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2026