CM Mahmood Khan asks cabinet members, secretaries to deliver

PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Mahmood Khan on Tuesday directed all the cabinet members and administrative secretaries to improve the performance of respective departments.

Chairing a meeting of provincial cabinet here, the chief minister said all the ministers, special assistants and advisors have been given full authority and as such they were responsible for the better performance of their departments. “The ministers, advisers and special assistants as well administrative secretaries were required to deliver to improve the performance of their respective departments to ensure better service delivery to the public,” the chief minister said. He said that the overall performance of the government was linked with the individual performance of the departments. The chief minister, an official handout, said directed all the ministers to visit respective constituencies soon after the budget session, and monitor the government’s initiatives launched to strengthen the health service delivery system to effectively deal with the coronavirus pandemic. The chief minister decided to hold regular meetings to review the performance of all the departments.

Expressing his dissatisfaction at the poor performance of the Food Department, he said strict action would be initiated against all those who were held responsible for that. Briefing the media about the decisions taken by the cabinet, Adviser to CM on Information and Public Relations, Ajmal Wazir, said the cabinet approved Medical Teaching Institutes Draft Amendment Bill 2020. The amendments provide for the establishment of Appellate Tribunal to ensure job security to the MTIs employees.

Under the proposed amendments, new mechanism for the appointment and dissolution of the board of governors has been put in place. The cabinet also approved a mechanism to give pension benefits to those government employees who had opted to be institutional employees of the MTIs. This decision will benefit as many as 400 senior doctors and other health professionals of the MTIs. Ajmal Wazir said the cabinet gave exemptions to Energy and Power Department of the relevant KPPRA rules for hiring the consultancy service of an international firm (IFC) through to start work on the 188MW Naran Hydel Power Project and 96MW Batta Kundi Hydel Power Project under Public-Private Partnership.

The cabinet approved grant-in-aid for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Oil and Gas Company Limited (KPOGCL) to work in partnership with other companies for oil and gas exploration in the newly merged districts. The draft of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance 2020 was approved to ensure safety of mine workers. A cabinet committee comprising of Shaukat Yousafzai, Sultan Muhammad Khan, Abdul Karim and Wazir Zada was constituted to improve the draft ordinance. The advisor said the cabinet approved the name of Muhammad Ishfaq Khattak as private member of the Board of Directors of Trans Peshawar Company. Matter of extension in the tenure of six vice-chancellors of public sectors universities of the province was also presented to the cabinet for approval. The cabinet did not agree to the idea and directed the department concerned to make new appointments as per rules and regulations.