Transfer of powers: Ministers appointed administrative heads of respective depts

PESHAWAR:

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to transfer the executive authority of the administrative secretaries to provincial ministers.

Following the order, ministers will be the administrative heads of their respective departments as stated in the 18th Constitutional Amendment.

At a meeting in his office on Wednesday, Chief Minister Pervez Khattak directed government officials to propose necessary amendments to the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Rules of Business.

Addressing participants, the chief minister said shifting executive powers from the bureaucracy is in accordance with the 18th Amendment and the move will empower elected representatives, making them more responsible. He added that ministers will appear before the Public Accounts Committees personally to defend their respective departments.

The chief minister said a committee comprising coalition partners and the civil bureaucracy and headed by the Ministry of Law and Parliamentary Affairs, should be constituted to finalise the proposed amendments in the rules.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 13^th, 2013.