With the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf announcing a march towards Islamabad on September 27, the country is once again witnessing a familiar confrontation between politics, administration and the police. The immediate question is whether and how the march should be allowed to proceed from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to Islamabad. Beneath it lies a more fundamental question: who should command the police, and where should the authority of each institution begin and end in KP? This question has acquired particular significance following the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Cabinet’s approval of the proposed Police Act 2026.

I have always believed that the Inspector General of Police should enjoy meaningful professional autonomy. A police chief cannot effectively command a force if operational decisions are dictated by political authorities or by powerful institutions outside the police chain of command. At the same time, police autonomy cannot mean that the IGP becomes unaccountable or that transfers and postings become a matter of personal discretion.

The objective should be a system in which the elected government provides policy and democratic oversight, the IGP exercises professional command, and intelligence and security agencies provide information and assessment rather than instructions. The history of KP’s police legislation is important. The Police Act 2017 gave the IGP a comparatively strong statutory position and substantial operational, administrative and financial autonomy. This was a deliberate attempt to create professional policing insulated from day-to-day political interference.

In 2024, the KP Government amended that law, including provisions giving the Chief Minister a greater role in the transfer and posting of senior police officers. Those amendments were challenged before the Peshawar High Court. On 15 January 2026, a five-member larger bench struck down key provisions, restored the IGP’s authority and declared approval of Chief Minister unconstitutional in transfer postings of grade 18 and above police officers.

The proposed Police Act 2026 now seeks to introduce several provisions similar in substance to those introduced through the 2024 amendments. This raises an obvious question: if provisions of that nature have already been judicially examined, has the new Bill genuinely addressed the constitutional concerns identified by........

© The Friday Times