PESHAWAR – The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Cabinet Wednesday decided that nodistrict would be created and announced on political grounds in futurerather the government would formulate a policy to create new administrativedistricts keeping in view ground realities and merit.
The cabinet met with the Chief Minister (CM) Mehmood Khan in the chairdeliberated on various agenda items including working women hostels urbanmass transit amendment act 2016, technical allowance for engineers, measureto improve KP budget by activating board of revenue, LPG issues in Chitraland staffregularization issues of Vehicle Emission Testing stations.The cabinet also approved limited financial autonomy to some of thedepartment for making them service delivery oriented.
The annual report of the provincial ombudsman office was also presented inthe cabinet meeting, Minister for Information Shaukat Yousafzai told mediaafter the cabinet meeting.
The cabinet approved two years extension in the services of contractemployees of the office of provincial ombudsman. It also approvedappointment of Rakhshanda Naz as Ombudsperson for KP for protection ofwomen against harassment at workplaces.
The cabinet approved the appointment in the light of the recommendations ofa search committee constituted under Protection against working womenharassment bill 2018 and headed by Chief Secretary KP.
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The Provincial Minister said that the committee finalized three namesincluding Rakhshanda Naz whom name was approved by the cabinet asOmbudsperson keeping in view her vast services for the rights of women.Shaukat Yousafzai said that the cabinet approved Standard OperatingProcedure (SoPs) for women hostels in the province to facilitate womenfolk. It decided SoPs for working women hostels in districts Peshawar andMardan. The main focus of the SoPs would be regulating allotment procedureforthe beneficiaries in the said hostels.
The cabinet also approved Urban Mass Transit (amendment) Act 2016, underwhich Urban Mobility Authority would be set up to streamline and regulatemass transport programs in the province.The cabinet decided to set up a committee to deliberate and find out aworkable solution about provision of technical allowance to the governmentengineers, adding the committee would comprise representatives from thedepartment of law, finance and administration. The committee wouldrecommend grant of technical allowance to the deserving governmentengineers.
The Cabinet after thorough deliberation on issues pertaining to newdistricts decided that in future no district would be announced onpolitical basis rather all ground realities would be analyzed onmerit and as per policy.Shaukat Yousafzai said that the cabinet also discussed LPG shortage indistrict Chitral and decided that the issue would be addressed on prioritybasis.The cabinet discussed the issue of regularization of staff working inVehicle Emission Testing Stations and dropped the matter while seekingperformance report. – APP