PESHAWAR: Nagging and simmering tension between the police department and the civil bureaucracy came out during a cabinet meeting held here on Thursday to discuss among other things on the agenda, law and order, with the former complaining of funds shortage and the later denying any formal request coming its way, multiple sources present during the meeting told Dawn.

The agenda item on law and order began with a presentation by the provincial police chief, Nasir Khan Durrani, who, as one source put it, began with showing video clips and other material, `in a self-laudatory` manner to project the `good performance` of his department, before launching into a litany of complaints regarding funds shortage and delays in granting approval, the sources said, requesting anonymity due to sensitivity of the matter and bar on contact with the media.

Interestingly, the police department circulated its own `made-inadvance` statement immediately claiming cabinet members `lauded` the remarkable initiative of the force.

The chief minister`s press office issued its own statement, while the department of information, legally mandated under the rules of business to issue statement of cabinet meetings, issued its own version of the cabinet.

The cabinet meeting, which was chaired by the Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and also attended by senior officers from civil bureaucracy, was marked by interjections and snide.

`Sniffer dogs have gone on diet, Mr. Durrani said in a lighter vein in an apparent dig at his colleagues in the home and finance department.

But while finance secretary Ahmad Hanif chose to keep mum, home secretary Arbab MohammadArif, known to be a gentleman, who keeps his cool, couldn`t take it anymore, the sources said.

`It is unfair to be accused of this, Mr. Arif was quoted by one of the sources.

`Nothing has come to us,` he retorted.

`Not a single paper has come to me. Let them show us a single paper they have sent to us,` the secretary home demanded, according to two sources. He kept pressing the red button to respond to the IG.

Before things could heat up further, chief secretary Amjad Ali Khan came to the defence of his secretary, the sources said.

`This is a cabinet meeting,` Mr Amjad was quoted by these sources as saying. `This is not a budget review meeting.

`Had this been about budget, officers should have been notified and they would have come prepared to respond to the points raised.

Mr Amjad explained there were rules and procedures and that decisions could not be made just lil(e that.

The chief minister said Mr Arif being a competent officer should sit down with the police and make them understand what he was saying.

At one point, said these sources, Mr Durrani upped the ante by offering to quit if some people were not comfortable with him, prompting the chief minister to say he was not uncomfortable with the police chief but some of those not comfortable with him were sitting in the meeting.

These sources said after completing his presentation, Mr Durrani made a salute and gave a hug to the chief secretary and left the cabinet meeting with his DIGs in tow.

Soon afterwards, these sources said, the home secretary started his presentation by pointing out that the contractual police, the IG was complaining about having been withdrawn, were being assigned toprotect the Pakistan-China Economic Corridor project on the federal government`s orders.

Slightly taken aback, CM Khattak said this should have been pointed out when Mr Durrani was around.

`But he has left now,` he said.

`You are right, there is no point, the home secretary said before picking up his official notepad and leaving.

`What sort of a meeting was this, a cabinet member said after the meeting. `What was all this about?` he wondered.

These sources said neither did the police circulate copies of the presentation before the meeting for other departments to come prepared nor did they share the copies after the cabinet meeting.

`It all seemed pre-planned,` one of the sources in the meeting said.

`The home secretary was not allowed to respond to the points raised,` the source said.

`Every time, he would push the red mike button, the chief minister would interject,` the source said.

`It was all one-sided,` the source said. `The cabinet was just told about the rosy side of the law and order situation, the other side was not heard.

When asked about altercation between senior officers and the police chief, information minister Mushtaq Ghani said `such discussion` often took place in meetings as participants had difference of opinlon on issues.

Earlier, he said at the media briefing that the cabinet held detailed discussion on law and order situation.

Safe Drinking Water Policy, amendment in Local Government Act, 2013 Khyber Pakhtunlchwa Medical Teaching Institute Reforms Act, 2015 and abolition of No Objection Certificate (NOC) for installation of new industrial units were also on the agenda.

He said that the cabinet was informed that the police had con-ducted more than 12,000 search and strike operations under the National Action Plan and apprehended 39,000 people while 11,000 weapons, 332,000 rounds of ammunition and 340 kilograms of explosives were also recovered.

The minister while quoting the police`s figures said terrorism related incidents had decreased by 56 per cent, while decline in kidnapping for ransom was 44 per cent, extortion 52 per cent and killing 23 per cent.

The cabinet approved provision of safe drinking water policy. It was noted that Public Health Engineering Department, which the prime executing agency had no vision and future line of action therefore the department had formulated policy in collaboration with World Bank, Unicef and Rural Support Organisation Network.

The minister said the underground water was major source of drinking water which was shrinking rapidly. However, the relevant department had no accurate data about underground water, he said adding that 82 per cent of the total population had access to clean drinlcing water in the province.

Under the new policy, he said, the relevant department will acquire correct data about sources of water.

He said the Water and Sanitation Regulatory Authority would be established.

The cabinet also approved amendment in the Local Government Act.

Under the proposed amendment the concerned district, tehsil or town nazim would seek vote of confidence if he failed to pass the budget from the council. For the purpose, the nazim will convene 20 per cent members of the council for getting fresh vote of confident.

The cabinet also decided that installation of new industrial units did not require NOC except for arms and ammunition, radioactive substances, explosive material, currency paper and mint and alcohol.