Commission to monitor charity collection by organisations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet on Thursday approved constitution of a commission for monitoring charity collection by different organisations in the province.

Briefing the media about decisions of the cabinet which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, Information Minister Shaukat Yousafzai said the commission would be headed by secretary home department with four other members to work for regularisation of charity collection in the province. He said the government was already working on regulating charity collection, but the commission was formed to focus on the issue and remove the loopholes in the process of checking. The minister said Pakistan had to comply with demands made in Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meeting to prove that the country was fully cooperating with international efforts to combat terrorism by blocking financial support to extremists and terrorist organisations. The cabinet, he said, also received a presentation on Ehsas programme by its head Dr Sania Nishtar, Advisor to Prime Minister.

During the briefing, the cabinet members were informed that a total of 134 schemes were included in Ehsas programme for the welfare of the people. An Ehsas app for parliamentarians would be launched within 10 days for the guidance of parliament members about areas where people live in poverty and need official support for the provision of different facilities, he added. He said a Citizen app of Ehsas Programme would also be launched within a month for information of general public about the nature of different schemes launched under the programme.

Shaukat Yousafzai said under the Ehsas programme about 120 langars were providing free food to people in different parts of the country. Interest-free loans would also be provided to about 80,000 applicants on a monthly basis, he added. He said the cabinet also discussed the recent shortage of flour in the province and was informed that the problem emerged due to untimely rains and export to Afghanistan but was handled effectively. The cabinet also discussed a summary moved by the Food Department for bringing KP Halal Food and Safety Authority under its control. The department is presently under the control of the Health Department.

He said it was decided that the chief minister would take a decision over the issue after consulting relevant officials. The KP cabinet approved the amendment to the Forest Act to disallow the use of land at any place by the Energy Department. He pointed out that the process was damaging the Forest land and, therefore, it was decided that if any department needed land for development purposes anywhere in the province, it can move summary for approval by the provincial cabinet. The cabinet approved launching of Rescue 1122 in Buner district as a special case. The information minister said in the Annual Development Plan, four 1122 stations were to be established in Shangla, Lower Kohistan, Lakki Marwat and Malakand. He said in the merged tribal districts, two Rescue 1122 centres would be established in each district. An amount of Rs2,869 million has already been released in this regard. The minister said the Self Livelihood programme on the pattern of Insaf Rozgar programme of merged districts would be launched with a fund of Rs2 billion rupees. Under the programme, loans from Rs50,000 to Rs500,000 would be given to unemployed youth. The cabinet also approved the formula for distribution of profit in public sector hospitals under Sehat Sahulat Card among doctors, nurses and paramedic staff.

It was also decided to launch an awareness campaign in the province in December about the dengue disease and the preventive measures to check its spread. Shaukat Yousafzai said the government alone cannot control the spread of dengue and, therefore, the cooperation of the general public would be sought and it would be educated through awareness campaign. The cabinet also approved the drafting of the act for Kaghan Development Authority on the lines of the Galliyat Development Authority. The cabinet decided to reduce the Capital Value Tax on immovable properties from two percent to 1.5 percent.