Peshawar Police Ban Private Jirgas in Hotels, HallsPakistan

SSP Operations Farhan Khan, SSP Investigation Dr Muhammad Sami Malik, the SP Rural Division, sub-divisional police officers and station house officers attended the meeting. The officers carried out a detailed review of the law and order situation in the city and of police performance.

Dr Ahmed also ordered indiscriminate action under a zero-tolerance policy against street criminals, drug dealers, moneylenders, gamblers and proclaimed offenders. He imposed a strict ban on aerial firing and the display of weapons at weddings and other celebrations, and directed divisional officers to personally check police patrolling in their areas. He said providing timely justice and protection to the public was the force’s priority, and warned that negligence would invite departmental action.

The directive came days after a jirga gathering in Peshawar turned violent. Police said two people were killed and two others injured on 6 November, when an argument during a jirga over a property and financial dispute escalated into gunfire near Kabootar Chowk on Ring Road, within the limits of the Shahpur police station.

Private jirgas have long operated as informal councils settling local disputes, but the Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that jirgas and panchayats have no legal standing to decide civil or criminal cases. The court said they may act only as voluntary arbitration or mediation forums in civil disputes between consenting parties. Peshawar police have said disputes should instead be taken to the police’s dispute resolution councils or the courts. The CCPO has previously said the aim is not to end Pashtun traditions but to stop their misuse, noting that some people have turned jirgas into a business and that armed men at such gatherings pose a threat to peace.