PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Pervez Khattak inaugurated three model police stations in the provincial metropolis on Monday and announced that all 500 police stations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would be upgraded to the same level to facilitate public.

He announced this while inaugurating a model police station at Gulbahar. University Town and Faqirabad police stations are the other two elevated to the status of model police stations. These police stations were upgraded as a pilot project. He said that all model police stations would have women desks for facilitating the female complainants.

The chief minister said that the experience of separate women police stations had not succeeded sofar in the country. However, he said that establishment of special women desks in the police stations would prove to be an effective step to facilitate women.

The credit, he said, went to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led coalition government, as establishment of model police stations was on its agenda.

The reform agenda, he said, also include dispute resolution councils at different levels to resolve the cases through negotiations by the elders in addition to improvement in the investigation system.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, provincial minister Ziaullah Afridi and Inspector General of Police Nasir Khan Durrani were also present on the occasion.

The chief minister said that now police officers would provide people due respect and protection as well as solve their petty cases. He said that police stations would be turned into reformation centres.

He said though the reform programme had been initiated with three model police stations in Peshawar, this process would contin-ue with momentum and soon all the police stations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would get a model status automatically.

He said that all police stations would be equipped and their basic needs fulfilled whereas a complainant of any gender on entering a police station would be received by the police and his complaint or case recorded in a friendly manner.

He said that congenial environment had been provided in the model police stations for registration of complaints and FIRs with a proper system of check and balance.

Mr Khattak said that his government was taking steps for bringing about a real change in the society and hoped that police officials would also change their behaviour with people.

He said that police force were equipped with the latest know-how while separate departments of training, investigation and intelligence had been set up to eliminate crimes and ensure rule of law.

He said that the home and tribal affairs department was being streamlined with a greater role inthis regard.

Criticising his political opponents, the chief minister deplored that the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had to bear the brunt of the ill-conceived policies of the previous governments wherein thousands of innocent people and security officials lost their lives in terrorism incidents.

He regretted that the previous rulers did not take any step for enabling the police force to combat terror acts.

He said that the PTI-led government had trained, equipped and enabled the police to face any eventuality, including acts of terrorism.

Earlier, IGP Nasir Durrani said that almost half of the 500 police stations in the province were in very bad conditions as they had no cemented buildings and some of them were functioning in rented buildings.

He said that a proposal had been sent to the government for their repair. He claimed that the police department was doing its job freely and it would soon overcome the problems.