Private testing agencies

KP cabinet forms body to look into complaints

By our correspondent

PESHAWAR: Taking notice of complaints against private testing agencies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Chief Minister Mahmood Khan on Tuesday constituted a cabinet committee to look into the issue.

Special Assistant to Chief Minister on Information and Higher Education Kamran Bangash told a briefing that the chief minister ordered the formation of the committee while chairing a meeting of the provincial cabinet.

Kamran Bangash said the committee on private testing agencies would comprise cabinet members Shahram Khan Tarakai, Mian Khaliq-ur-Rahman, Taimur Jhagra, Wazir Zada, Riaz Khan and himself.

Besides recommending a regulatory mechanism for private testing agencies, the committee would submit proposals for strengthening ETEA and KP Public Service Commission. It would submit a report within two weeks, he added.

The cabinet also constituted a committee headed by the finance minister to look into the newly framed retirement age, which would submit a report within a fortnight. The issue of retirement age of government employees had surfaced in the aftermath of the Supreme Court

verdict. The committee would submit its recommendations on the issue to the cabinet within two-week time.

Kamran Bangash said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government would hold local government elections in September this year as decided in the previous cabinet meeting and work out modalities in active collaboration with Election Commission of Pakistan for delimitation, etc.

He said the KP government was framing and updating rules to fully empower local governments to ensure devolution of powers to the local governments in its true spirit and empower the masses at the grassroots level.

The special assistant said the cabinet had tasked Minister for Local Government Akbar Ayub Khan to have close coordination with Election Commission of Pakistan for finalisation of the pre-requisites for the smooth holding of local government elections in the province.

Kamran Bangash said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s nazimeen and councillors elected in the previous local government elections had delivered well and served the masses that is why the masses empowered the present government with a two-thirds majority in the province. He said the PTI government was committed to decentralising power to serve the masses at their door-step.

Kamran Bangash said the KP cabinet felicitated the citizens of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on the extension of Sehat Card Plus to the whole population, terming it a revolutionary step towards a welfare state.

He said the cabinet was informed that there was no scarcity of wheat and sugar in the province and the cabinet decided to use all available options, to ensure smooth provision of wheat and sugar, including import and domestic procurement.