PESHAWAR, May 26: The NWFP Cabinet unanimously decided to send the proposed Hisba Act to the governor for his approval, Information Minister Asif Iqbal Daudzai told Dawn on Wednesday.

The proposed bill has drawn severe criticism from political parties and civil society organisations of being arbitrary, infringing upon the principles of justice and freedom.

The governor, had already sent the proposed Hisba Bill to the Council of Islamic Ideology (ICC) to review it. According to him, in view of the shortage of police personnel, the cabinet had okayed creation of 2,500 new posts in the department in next fiscal to provide better security to the people.

He said that to hire 25,000 people in police, a one-time grant would be provided by the Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali next year. He said that the government had planned to hold a seminar in the provincial metropolis to obtain consensus on the draft Hisba law.

The meeting, which lasted for several hours also approved the purchase of 300,000 tones of wheat from Punjab, on an immediate basis, to avert a crisis-like situation in the province.

Mr Daudzai said that the province's requirements stood at three million tones per annum. The commodity will then be stored at the government's godowns after acquiring it from Punjab. The cabinet was also briefed by the inspector-general police, Mohammad Riffat Pasha on the law and order situation in the province, he said.