Pakistan is considering setting up "faceless" courts to try terrorism cases in its northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, alongside a security package worth more than $250 million, as authorities in the militant-hit region attempt to rebuild a police force that has been battered by years of attacks.
The plan was announced on Sunday, 8 November, by the provincial information department under the banner of the "Strong Khyber Pakhtunkhwa" initiative. It sets a target of allocating Rs70 billion — about $253 million — to security in the province, split between Rs59.8 billion, roughly $216 million, for the police and Rs10.3 billion, about $37 million, for the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD).
At the centre of the announcement is a proposal to establish faceless courts for counter-terrorism cases, in which the identities of judges, witnesses and others involved in sensitive proceedings would not be revealed. According to the official statement, the idea is aimed at ensuring the swift elimination of terrorists and the protection of witnesses — a recognition that fear of reprisal has long discouraged people from testifying in militancy cases.
The announcement came at a moment when the province's security troubles were once again in the headlines. The statement followed within hours of a policeman being killed in a militant attack in the Tank district, the latest in a steady stream of assaults on security forces, police and civilians across the province.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has seen a sharp rise in militant violence in recent years, particularly in districts bordering Afghanistan, where armed groups have exploited difficult terrain and cross-border networks to carry out attacks. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other militant groups have repeatedly targeted police convoys and check-posts. Islamabad has repeatedly accused the TTP of using Afghan territory to plan and launch cross-border attacks, an allegation Kabul denies.
The security plan is being rolled out while the province is under direct federal control. Last month, the federal government sidelined the provincial government and took the region under its control, imposing emergency and governor's rule on 11 October under Articles 232 and 234 of the Constitution, citing the deteriorating security situation and what it described as the provincial administration's failure to cooperate in the fight against terrorism. Executive powers were transferred to Governor Faisal Karim Kundi, assisted by an advisory council.
Details of the package emerged from a high-level security briefing at the Governor's House in Peshawar, attended by Governor Kundi, his advisers, the chief secretary, senior police and bureaucratic officials and representatives of other security agencies. Provincial Home Secretary Amjad Ali Khan told the meeting that a new strategy had been drawn up to bring terrorism under control, and disclosed that the province faces a shortage of 17,000 vacant police posts, which would be filled without delay.
The briefing also laid bare how thin the force's resources had become. Officials said the previous administration had released only Rs1 billion of the Rs6.5 billion allocated for the police, and Governor Kundi corrected earlier figures to say the vacancy count was 17,000 rather than 10,000. Anti-drone systems are to be installed in Dera Ismail Khan, Lakki Marwat and Bannu to counter the growing use of drones by militants, and the governor declared that the state would wage an all-out war against those who fight against it.
Beyond the headline funding, the plan sets a series of specific capability targets. Police fortification is to rise to 75 percent, surveillance capacity from 15 percent to 60 percent, and night-fighting capability from 18 percent to 50 percent. The police's anti-drone capability is to be lifted from just 1 percent to 50 percent, armouring of CTD vehicles from 16 percent to 70 percent, and the use of jammers from 3 percent to 50 percent. The CTD's operational scope is to be expanded to 34 districts, "District Nerve Centres" and a "Safe Cities Authority" are to be established across 10 districts, and the police attrition rate is to be brought down from 15 percent to 5 percent.
Technology features heavily in the package. Artificial intelligence is to be deployed to counter what the statement called "false and fabricated narratives on social media", and "Smart Front Desks" are to be set up at 406 police stations across the province's major cities. The measures suggest the authorities see the information space as part of the same contest as the physical one, with militant propaganda and disinformation treated as a threat to be policed alongside attacks on the ground.
Governor Kundi, speaking at a press conference in Peshawar on Sunday, framed the new arrangement as a break with the recent past. He said there had previously been a lack of coordination between the federal and provincial governments in the fight against terror, and that with governor's rule in place, coordination between the centre and the province would now improve — with policy direction coming from Islamabad rather than from across the border.
What remains unclear is how the faceless-courts proposal would actually become law. No draft bill or budget document has been published, and it is not yet known whether the change would come through the provincial assembly, an ordinance, or federal legislation while the province remains under governor's rule. For now, the proposal stands as an announcement of intent — one of the most concrete, and most far-reaching, security measures put forward since the emergency was imposed — and its test will be whether the money, the recruits and the new courts materialise in a province where previous plans have repeatedly fallen short.
Figures in this report were checked at 18:54 PKT on 08 November 2026 against reports from Arab News, the Express Tribune and 24NewsHD.
