Officials say summary sent to chief secretary; authority’s staff to be accommodated in PDMA wing. PHOTO: EXPRESS
In this regard, the K-P Relief, Rehabilitation and Settlement RR&S Department has moved a summary to the provincial chief secretary to phase out PaRRSA by the end of December.
Sources in the K-P government have said that the chief secretary’s office, after reviewing the summer, has sent it to the provincial Planning and Development (P&D) department for its comments.
Sources also say that by abolishing PaRRSA, the K-P government will lose a waiver on its schemes which have been exempted from seeking approval from the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) or Economic Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC).
“When PaRRSA was established under the previous government, the then prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani gave it a waiver for executing schemes,” said an official while requesting not to be named.
“The schemes executed by PaRRSA do not need to seek approval from the CDWP, ECNEC regardless of their cost.”
In the tenth meeting of PaRRSA’s Provincial Steering Committee, held on August 1, the RR&S Department secretary had said that PaRRSA will be gradually phased out and that its task will be shifted to the Reconstruction and Rehabilitation wing of PDMA.
In the meeting— a copy of its minutes are available with The Express Tribune —the RR&S Secretary Ahmad Orakzai said that existing staff of PaRRSA would be given preference while filling the new posts in the Reconstruction and Rehabilitation wing of PDMA.
The government had already terminated the services of 23 PaRRSA staffers in January — the first step it took towards abolishing the authority. However, these officers were later reinstated on the directions of the Peshawar High Court. Currently, all the staffers have contracts which last till December.
The summery moved to the chief secretary would thus define the fate of the authority.
A senior official close the matter expressed his concerns over the process and told The Express Tribune that a team of K-P Finance and Establishment Department should study both the PDMA and the PaRRSA.
“If there are any shortcomings in PDMA, these can be filled via the truncated PaRRSA,” the official said.
Orakzai, when asked about the move, said that the “the quantum of work of PaRRSA has reduced now and in any case, it has to be phased out by December.”
He added that PaRRSA is a project, and projects are meant to work for a certain period only.
Orakzai explained that the authority had been established in 2009 to Malakand crisis and by 2015 it had completed most of its work.
During this time, the PDMA had developed its Reconstruction and Rehabilitation wing which would take up PaRRSA’s projects.
“We will seriously consider the competent staff members of PaRRSA in the R&R wing of PDMA,” Orakzai assured.
PaRRSA had been set up to rebuild and rehabilitate the militancy-hit Malakand division where infrastructure including schools, health facilities and other government buildings were destroyed in the war on terrorism. It was funded by the government and through foreign donors.
Its work was expanded to include infrastructure damaged in the 2011 floods as well.
Since it started work, it has rebuilt 111 schools and is working on constructing 73 schools which were damaged by militants.
In the health sector, the authority has rebuilt five basic health units while rehabilitating seven other health facilities, while providing furniture and equipment to 47 other health facilities.
Similarly, it is working on drinking water supply schemes in Swat and Buner where six projects have been completed and 17 are underway.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 23rd, 2017.
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