‘Blood relatives can now donate organs’

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government in its cabinet meeting on Thursday approved the Medical Transplantation Regulatory Authority (MTRA) Rules 2017 that allowed blood relatives to donate organs and the major hospitals to get the required facilities for transplantation.

Briefing newsmen about the decisions of the cabinet meeting, the advisor to the chief minister, Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani, said after the approval of the MTRA the people would be able to receive donation of organs from blood relatives, seek transplantation of organs from dead bodies and avail services of surgeons and physicians for transplantations.

He said the cabinet meeting, presided over by Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, also approved the Public Private Partnership (Amendment Act 2014). “It is for collective investment in the province and creating concessions and pleasant atmosphere for foreign investors, particularly to ensure implementation of the projects under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). This would also end legal complications,” Mushtaq Ghani added.

He said the cabinet also approved the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Foundation Public Private Partnership Rules 2017 and KP Managing Director Health Foundation Rules for matters of appointment and suspension.

After the approval, he said, the Health Department would be authorised to prioritize, implement and reject the projects and select the parties. Under the amended rules, he said, the managing director would be authorized to make appointments and order suspension of employees and decide the rules, salaries. regulations and conditions of service.

Mushtaq Ghani said the cabinet also approved setting up a sub-committee to prepare recommendations to implement strictly the sector-wise spending as per the approved formula in all local governments throughout the province.

He said the cabinet appreciated the valuable contribution of the outgoing Chief Secretary Abid Saeed and termed the collective decision-making as key for durable development. According to Mushtaq Ghani, the chief minister directed that details of all contract employees recruited through NTS should be collected as his government wanted to find out a way out for regularization of their services.

He quoted the chief minister as saying that the province would be flooded by foreign investors in the near future. The chief minister pointed out that his government had made a number of agreements in different sectors with both domestic and foreign investors and projects would soon be put on the ground. “The chief minister asked all the stakeholders to sincerely become part of the development process. He declared the amendments to the public-private partnership as necessary,” Mushtaq Ghani explained.