K-P Apex Committee approves 17,000 new vacancies

Okays absorption of Levies and Khasadars into the K-P police

PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Apex Committee has decided to create 17,000 new vacancies in the seven merged tribal districts besides 6,000 posts in the police department.

The committee has also decided to implement in the erstwhile Fata the judicial system and laws in force across the country, besides, development schemes which have reached 80% completion level will be taken over by the provincial authorities.

According to an official statement Chief Minister Mahmood Khan and Governor Shah Farman jointly presided over the Apex Committee meeting that reviewed the situation arising after the Supreme Court of Pakistan struck down the interim arrangements for the seven merged districts.

The meeting made a number of decisions for the infrastructure development in erstwhile FATA including the Frontier Regions.

The apex committee approved creation of 17,000 additional posts in different departments to be proportionally distributed amongst the seven new districts.

Peshawar Corps Com­mander Shaheen Mazhar Mahmood, provincial ministers .Atif Khan, Shahram Tarakai, Shaukat Yousafzai, Taimur Saleem Jhagra, Hasham Inamullah, Advisor to CM on merged districts Ajmal .Wazir, Chief Secretary Naveed Kamran Baloch, Additional Chief Secretary Shehzad Bangash, IGP Salahuddin Mehsud, IG FC Major General Rahat Naseem, K-P Advocate General Latif Yousafzai and other government and military functionaries attended the meeting.

The meeting saw detailed deliberations on the overall merger plan, development plans for tribal areas, absorption of Levies and Khasadar into the regular police, creation of posts in police, education, health and other sectors.

The meeting agreed to facilitate extension of judicial system of the country and the province to the seven new districts after repealing of the Article 247 of the Constitution, merged areas have become the part of province and therefore the existing in vogue laws would be applicable to the new districts.

The meeting was briefed about the possible issues and the remedial measures as a way forward to overcome challenges.

The CM advised to focus on the development schemes so as to win the hearts and minds of the people, time tagged implementation process on the decision of Supreme Court, taking care of administrative matters without any wastage of time so that the Supreme Court decision is implemented in letter and spirit.

The meeting discussed the possible irritants to be created by the forces of status quo and thoroughly debated step by step and the long term approach so that no vacuum prevailed both legally and administratively. The meeting agreed to notify the extension of judiciary. “We have to take result oriented approach as a knee jerk reaction could backfire in the process of implementation. We have to win the hearts and minds of the people within the interim period and we have to manage the challenging issues.”

The meeting agreed to the induction of levies and Khasadar into the regular police following the set criteria making legislation for the induction of federal force into provincial force as per the vision of the Prime Minister Imran Khan who pledged the people of erstwhile FATA during his visit. The additional posts to be created in different public sector institutions would also be offered to the locals.

The chief minister advised the participants to look into the administrative and political challenges for removing the uncertainty arising after the Fata merger in K-P.

The meeting also agreed to construction of judicial complexes, absorption of 12,000 Levies and 18,000 Khasadars in K-P police and creation of 6,000 additional vacancies in the police. All these vacancies and inductions will be proportionally among the new districts on the basis of population.

It also agreed to the sequential induction of police in the merged districts and approved skeleton staff both for the judiciary and police for smooth facilitation.

The meeting agreed to the announcement of a full package covering development side of the merger and mainstreaming side for the rehabilitation and repatriation of affectees, reconstruction of their houses, provision of basic facilities including health and education.

The chief minister agreed to generate resources for the provision of all basic facilities however these activities should be completed under timelines and for which necessary PC-1 should be completed.

The meeting was informed that ban has been lifted from the post of BPS-1 to BPS-15 and recruitment would be made on these posts as expeditiously as possible.

However recruitment of Post BPS 16 and above would be made through public service commission. Sehat Insaf Card would be extended within one and half month up to five lakh families.

The meeting directed to communicate to the federal government for early implementation on the schemes. The solarisation of different projects was also cleared by the meeting.

It also agreed to the creation of 2384 posts for which SNEs should be prepared on war footings. The Chief Minister said that with these steps the people of the backward areas would receive immediate relief.

The Chief Minister also directed the health department to make functional the trauma centre in Parachinar of Kurram district and necessary steps should immediately be taken. He also directed the health department to take over hospitals Kurram, Miranmshah, Mohmand and prepare PC-1 to arrange basic requirements in these hospitals.

The chief minister also directed the quarter concerned for the accelerated movement on the medical college, teaching hospital and a university announced by Prime Minister Imran Khan during his visit to erstwhile Fata. PC-1 should be prepared for these projects and added that he himself would inaugurate these projects.

Regarding the extension of independent monitoring units (IMU) to the merged districts, the CM expressed his optimism that this would bring positive impact in the education sector. The schools in the erstwhile Fata could be made functional and the presence of teachers could be ensured adding that the relevant quarter should pay surprise visits to ensure the functioning of schools up to capacity. “We will move from paper work to actual ground and the existing policy in this regard will be extended to the newly merged districts,” he said.

The meeting also highlighted the repatriation of affectees and CM Mahmood issued directive for a full survey covering all damages, administrative and other issues in order to give a compensation package to the affectees in this regard. It also agreed to the food package and assistance allowance to be carried out by the relief department.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 24^th, 2019.