Balochistan cabinet approves new sub-divisions for province

The Balochistan cabinet on Wednesday decided to establish new administrative sub-divisions in the province in view of the increasing population.

A sub-committee was formed in this regard which would be headed by Minister for Revenue Saleem Ahmed Khosa.

The aforementioned decision was taken during the cabinet meeting chaired by the Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal.

Government officials informed the participants of the meeting that administrative issues were piling up due to the increasing population of the province and hence the decision pertaining to formation of new subdivisions in the province was taken.

Secretary Law, Secretary Services and General Administration and a member at the divisional level would be included in the sub-committee of the cabinet to look after the administrative issues.

The cabinet meeting also approved the draft of the Balochistan Power Development Act 2020 for integrating energy policy in the province, implementing programmes and projects in a better way apart from utilising available energy resources and attracting the private sector to investin the energy sectors across the province.

While discussing the impact of Covid-19, the meeting approved the grant for National Response and Reliance Plan for coronavirus and National Equitable Education Programme.

The cabinet also approved the suggestion of changing the names of irrigation department’s development schemes and the amendments in Balochistan Arts Council Act 2018 by establishing the board of the council.

Procedure for allotment rules 2009 regarding allotment of official residence facility in Quetta was also given the go ahead. Under the amendment in the rules, the official residence could be allotted in the name of the daughter of a retired government employee. Earlier, it was not included in the allotment rules.

The cabinet also approved setting up of the Balochistan Judicial Academy.

Further on, while discussing issues related to the health department, approval was given for contractual appointments of medical officers, lady medical officer, dental surgeons, staff nurses in health department, specialist cadre post and teacher cadre posts of medical colleges and teaching hospitals.

Towards the end of the meeting, approval was granted to make eight teaching hospitals of the province functional. It also approved hawker’s welfare fund revise policy 2020.

Provincial Ministers, parliamentary secretary on information Bushra Rind, Chief Secretary Balochistan cap (redt) Fazeel Asghar and provincial secretaries also attended the meeting.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 19^th, 2020.