‘Vacant posts in KP’s merged districts to be filled in three months’

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Minister Shaukat Yousafzai on Wednesday said that before the general election, the provincial government would hold local government (LG) polls in the merged districts and 15,000 of the 30,000 vacancies in these districts would also be filled within three months.

Speaking at a press conference at the Civil Secretariat, he said there would be a meeting every month to assess the progress on the implementation of the reforms in the merged districts.

Advisor to Chief Minister on Elementary and Secondary Education Ziaullah Bangash was present on the occasion. Shaukat Yousafzai said there were around 30,000 vacancies in the merged districts and the provincial government was planning to fill out in half of them which also included the recruitment of about 6,000 police personnel.

He said 500,000 Sehat Insaf Cards would be distributed to the deserving families in the merged districts by the end of the current month. The minister added that missing facilities and urgent needs of 21 higher secondary schools, including, equipment lab instruments and staff would be provided and 350 damaged primary schools would be rehabilitated with the first 100 schools standardised in the current financial year. He said 25 sports grounds, including one at each division level, would be constructed and upgraded and the sports gala in the merged districts would be kicked off next month.

The minister said solarisation of already approved health facilities, public spaces, commercial spots, city centres and that of about 300 mosques would also be initiated. To a question, he said over 100 archaeological sites had been identified in the erstwhile tribal areas and a programme for the preservation of the same would be chalked out. The standard of Governor Model Schools would be improved and rationalization of positions in each school in the ex-Fata would be carried out, he said. The minister added that Storeey de Pakhtunkhwa scholarship programme for top board position holders would be introduced in these areas by June end.