Tribal areas. PHOTO: REUTERS
Moreover, the chief executive body of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) also approved moves to set up a monitoring authority and grant legal cover to two varsities in the erstwhile provincially administered tribal areas.
This was decided in a meeting of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Cabinet which met at the Chief Minister Secretariat in Peshawar on Tuesday.
Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, who chaired the meeting, okayed the move to extend the K-P Police Act 2017, to the newly merged tribal districts and directed the implementation of all rules and regulations of settled areas in merged districts in letter and spirit.
Speaking to the media after the cabinet meeting, Information Minister Shaukat Yousafzai said that under the move, South Waziristan will be under Dera Ismail Khan region, North Waziristan under Bannu region, Orakzai and Kurram tribal districts under the Kohat region, Khyber under Peshawar region, Mohmand under the Mardan region and Bajaur under the Malakand Region.
Similarly, the cabinet also approved the establishment of police stations at the sub-divisional level in all the merged tribal districts. This would mean that as many as 25 police stations will be set up in the tribal districts.
The cabinet also gave administrative approval to the "Professional Road Improvement Project" being funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Under the project, nine roads across the province will be rehabilitated. K-P will provide Rs120 million for the installation of gas, electricity and other utility connections and for procuring lands.
The cabinet also approved a proposed draft of K-P Youth Welfare Endowment Commission bill for passage from the provincial assembly.
Mahmood directed to search out reputable and capable persons for induction into the board of different public sector entities which would be passed from the provincial Assembly.
Moreover, he said that he would soon finalise a schedule for provincial ministers to visit the merged tribal districts.
A committee consisting of ministers for law, finance and information was set up to look into establishing a Law Directorate-General. This committee was directed to submit its recommendations at the next cabinet meeting for approval.
The chief minister further directed to nominate people of good repute to include in the boards of different departments, adding that his government was committed to transparency and merit.
Stating that it was not the policy of his administration to fire any government employee, Mahmood formed a committee with K-P Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra, Information Minister Yousafzai and Law Minister Sultan Muhammad Khan to look into the anomalies of regularization of employees, legal loopholes and shortcomings in the K-P Regularisation of Employees Act 2018.
This committee will review concerns raised by the first committee, draft a fresh set of recommendations to resolve them and submit them to the cabinet.
Reviewing the developmental strategy for the province and the Budget Strategy Paper-I for the fiscal year 2019-20, the K-P chief minister said that a major chunk of resources goes to towards non-developmental expenditures such as salaries and pensions which leaves few funds for developmental projects.
He assured to drastically cut down the non-developmental expenditures to increase the fiscal space for developmental schemes. He directed to follow the guidelines and undertake extensive homework for the resource generation in order to bring stability to the provincial kitty so that we could allocate resources for the developmental projects throughout the province.
Mahmood directed an existing committee was directed to review the policy regarding allowances from scratch.
With the federal government to start transferring net-hydel power resources, it was suggested that the AGN-Qazi formula can have significant contributions in strengthening the fiscal space of the province.
He also directed to send a summary for the appointments of MD Tanzeem Lilsail wal Mahroom so that the next cabinet could make a decision.
The administration department was directed to auction condemned vehicles.
The cabinet also approved the K-P Education Monitoring Authority Bill 2019 which would turn the provincial government’s pilot Independent Monitoring Unit (IMU) into a permanent and independent authority.
The bill will now head to the K-P assembly for deliberation and voting by lawmakers.
The cabinet also approved the K-P University Amendment Bill 2019. The bill was a legal necessity due to the merger of the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (Pata) to bring the University of Buner and the University of Chitral under the ambit of the law.
They will now formally have the status of campus under the law.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 27th, 2019.
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