News Details

28/09/2017

Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervez Khattak has said that the laws and regulations introduced by his Government would lead to absolute transparency in all public spheres.

Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervez Khattak has said that the laws and regulations introduced by his Government would lead to absolute transparency in all public spheres. The unanimity of thoughts and the cohesive decision making for the public well being would certainly pay. The supremacy of merit and the protection of rights of all without any consideration were the true measurement tools for total transparency that the government owed to the public, he added. He was presiding over a meeting of the provincial cabinet at the Cabinet Room of Civil Secretariat Peshawar. Provincial Ministers, Chief Secretary, administrative secretaries attended. The cabinet approved the mineral sector governance Act 2017 under which an investment facilitation authority would be established. Provincial Minister for Miners & Mineral would be the chairman of the authority. Other members included chairman of the standing committee on mines & mineral, nominee MPA of the opposition leader, administrative secretary, representative of Peshawar University, Engineering University Peshawar, Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and a representative of the worker association. The cabinet also okayed the amendment rules 2016 of the KP TEVTA in order to promote technical education, ensure transparency and make the reconstitute the procurement committee of TEVTA. The cabinet also approved resources for the relocation and shifting of utilities under the Bus Rapid Transit project. It also okayed the rules and regulation under the Press & Publication, News Agencies and Book Registration Act 2013. The Chief Minister in his remarks said that no sector dealing with the public affairs would ever stay unregulated. Even if the regulatory framework for any public sector has any weaknesses, the government would spurn into action making necessary amendment to remove the weaknesses, he added. This is the province which took the lead for making record legislations in order to have a system having the capacity to deliver upto the expectations. This province, he added, took the lead to have the first ever legislation for the mines and mineral development in the province. Recently, the provincial government had given licenses to 21 potential investors for setting of cement plants on first come first served basis. This was in an open license awarding ceremony even covered by the media and it generated the right kind of feedback expressing trust in the whole process and transparency demonstrated that discouraged the mafia of the past when the individuals used to have 178 leases and 175 leases. It is history now and his government would never allow such fishy fishy dealings, he added. He said his government took a bold step to put the whole mining system to the international practices and that even brought an additional amount of Rs. 48 crores to the national exchequer. He appreciated that the system was put online and the department attracted 2294 applications for investment in the mines and mineral sector. He asked the department to publicize the positive difference between the present system and the past system. He directed the C&W and Minerals Department to sit together and firm up recommendations so that the government could form a process supported by guidelines for the crushing and other related activities. This should be finalized in a week, he added. He hoped that the draft mineral sector governance reforms act 2017 as approved by the provincial cabinet would lead to a uniform approach and ensure total transparency. Regarding the technical education amendment, the Chief Minister said that his government had established autonomous boards and authorities and he has given his own power to these outfits but unfortunately we did not get the right kind of decision making and improvement required therefore the government decided to bring amendment to improve the working of these boards and authorities. He said that under the new scheme of things, all procurement and the process of procurement would be undertaken as per the guidelines of KEPRA rules so that there was total transparency in the whole procurement process and the public money spent on public welfare. The cabinet approved it. The Chief Minister called upon for the uniformity of opinions and thoughts by all the public sector entities in order to contribute to the public welfare, public security and the law department should vet all the legal drafts so that no weaknesses emerged after the legislation. Pervez Khattak also asked to replicate the model of agreement that the provincial government had with the FWO while making agreements in hydel power generation and other sectors as such agreements guaranteed the resource generation of the province that will certainly lead the province to stand on its own feet. There would be no compromise on widening the resource base of the province. He appreciated the agreement of the provincial government with the Korean company for energy generation in the province. He directed for the relocation of utilities and the allocation of resources for the purpose under which land acquisition and other activities would be undertaken. The provincial cabinet agreed to the allocation of resources for the relocation of utilities and land acquisition etc for the BRT project which was a component of the overall project undertaken with the Asian Development Bank and would be readjusted thereafter. The Chief Minister appreciated the work of the Information Department for reforming the system of publicity and agreed to form a steering committee which the cabinet also Okayed after a debate. The cabinet agreed to the process in emergency for the expeditious campaigning for public awareness. The committee will have representation of the relevant department for any given campaign and would clear it however the Information Department would at the end of the day award and issue the campaign to a suitable media. The Chief Minister reminded total transparency in the whole process of publicity campaign. He directed for the clearance of outstanding dues of the media. Pervez Khattak directed for equal distribution of resources when the cabinet took the agenda of the budget of district Karak. The cabinet approved the budget of District Karak and added the budget of District Karak and added that the identification of schemes should be carried out through the elected representatives of district government and the guidelines of the P&D should be followed in letter and spirit. However, he formulated a committee comprising provincial ministers, Muhammad Atif and Ali Amin Gandapur, secretaries P&D & Local government department which would submit a report within a week in this regard. The cabinet also Okayed the recruitment of three Additional Advocate Generals and one Assistant Advocate General. ===============