KP Cabinet Approves Police Act 2026, Shifting Command Powers From IGP to CM Afridi

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's cabinet approved a revised Police Act 2026 on September 23, 2026, at its 59th meeting chaired by Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, in a move that hands the provincial government substantially more control over senior police appointments, transfers and policy — and that has already drawn a threatened Supreme Court challenge from the federal government and a refusal to sign from KP's own governor.

What the cabinet approved

The revised Act, finalised after cabinet members' earlier reservations were incorporated into the draft, creates a Police Policy Board chaired by the chief minister to oversee major policy decisions affecting the force and to approve the province's annual police plan. A separate Police Operations Board remains under the Inspector General, notionally preserving a policy-versus-operations split. But the more consequential provisions sit elsewhere: the provincial government gains the power to return the services of federal police officers — including the IGP — to the federal government over unsatisfactory performance, and can request additional names for the IGP post if dissatisfied with the incumbent. The chief minister also gains direct authority, under the KP Rules of Business 1985, over the appointment and transfer of police officers in Grade 18 and above, including district police officers, with senior postings such as regional and district police officers now requiring government or chief-ministerial approval.

A reversal of the province's own reform

The move is notable because it comes from the same political party that built its reputation on the opposite reform. PTI's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government introduced landmark police reforms in 2017 specifically to reduce political interference and strengthen the force's operational autonomy — reforms the party held up for years as a model for the rest of the country. The 2026 Act rolls back some of the safeguards that 2017 framework put in place, shifting command-related decisions back toward the chief minister's office. Senior police officers have not been quiet about the change: officers in Grades 18 to 20 have raised reservations, with some Pakistan Police Service officers reportedly considering transfers to the FIA or Frontier Constabulary, and some district police officers said to be seeking postings in Punjab or Islamabad instead, out of concern that day-to-day police work will now run through greater political direction.

The federal government's response

Federal Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry both publicly objected to the draft, arguing it risks undermining the police command-and-control structure in the province, and the federal government has said it intends to challenge the amended Act in the Supreme Court once it takes legal effect. KP Governor Faisal Karim Kundi went further, calling the Act unconstitutional and saying he will not give it his assent when it is formally sent to him for approval — a step that would ordinarily be required after the KP Assembly passes the bill, and one the governor's office can, in practice, hold up.

Part of a wider federal-KP standoff

The dispute over the Police Act lands directly on top of an already tense relationship between Islamabad and the PTI-run province. Interior Minister Naqvi has separately said the federal government is weighing governor's rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a threat KP's own governor has called baseless even as Naqvi has not walked it back. That standoff has unfolded alongside preparations for PTI's Islamabad long march, now rescheduled to depart Peshawar on October 4, and against a backdrop of an intensifying security situation along the province's border with Afghanistan, including Pakistan's recent airstrikes on alleged militant staging points inside Afghan territory. Whether the Police Act dispute is a genuinely separate institutional disagreement over policing, or another front in the broader federal-KP standoff, is not something either side has directly addressed.

What happens next

The approved draft still needs to clear the KP Assembly, where PTI holds a majority and passage is expected, before it reaches the governor's desk — the point at which the current impasse is likely to come to a head. If Kundi withholds assent as he has signalled, the province and the federal government would be left to resolve the standoff either through further negotiation or in court, where the federal government has already said it intends to take the fight.

Build Better Pakistan's Politics Desk covers Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's institutions and its relationship with the federal government as part of our ongoing coverage.