Shahid Jan
PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government has drafted a new law aimed at controlling professional begging and establishing a comprehensive rehabilitation system for vulnerable individuals involved in the practice.
The proposed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Vagrancy (Control and Rehabilitation) Act 2026 seeks to prevent organized begging while ensuring support and reintegration of deserving people into society.
Special rehabilitation centres will be set up for beggars under the draft law which will provide facilities for rehabilitation and development of such individuals.
The proposed law will take special care to ensure the protection of children, women, and other vulnerable groups along with putting in place the mechanism of rehabilitation and social integration.
A provincial steering committee will be constituted for conducting anti-begging drives. It will comprise the representatives from the Social Welfare Department, Health Department, Education Department, Police Department, Local Government Department, and other concerned departments.
Moreover, the proposed law will include public awareness drives for preventing begging. The use of advanced technology like biometric systems, AI-based identification of individuals, geotagging of data, and centralization of the system through databases will be suggested under the draft law.
Strong measures are to be taken against professional beggars and people who organize begging through other means. The proposed bill also states that the passports, identity cards, and bank accounts of professional beggars working abroad will be blocked, and they might even be named on the Exit Control List (ECL).
Under the bill, the penalties will vary according to the offense. A person involved in the act of begging for the first time can be warned, fined an amount of up to Rs10,000, or put behind bars for one month. If this is done repeatedly, then one can go to jail for one year or pay fines up to Rs50,000.
People falsely claiming disabilities for the sake of begging can spend up to one year in jail and have to pay fines of Rs10,000.
For the offense of forcing children to beg, the punishment will include imprisonment up to three years and fines up to Rs400,000.
All the offenses under the proposed bill will be considered as non-bailable, and the police along with the social welfare department will be authorized to deal with the offenders.
