PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet on Thursday approved a special allowance for the provincial bureaucracy, which is likely to cost the provincial exchequer over Rs460 million annually.

The cabinet met with Chief Minister Pervez Khattak in the chair and provincial ministers, chief secretary and administrative secretaries in attendance.

It discussed a 12-point agenda and approved after thorough discussion the draft KP Narcotics Substance Bill, 2017, schedule post allowance for the provincial bureaucracy, procedure for the appointment of government employees as Khuddamul Hujjaj, measures against illegal mining and stone crushing, thechief minister’s directives about the creation of new tehsils, and the status of protected wasteland for the forests of Torghar district.

An official requesting anonymity told Dawn that the cabinet discussed various proposals regarding the special allowance for bureaucracy and decided to allow the scheduled postallowance at 1.5 times of initial basic pay.

Move to cost kitty Rs460m annually

“Three options proposing allowance of 1.5, 2 and 2.5 times of the basic pay were put before the cabinet, which chose the lowest one,” he said.

The official said currently, the provincial bureaucracy consisted of 802 officers, including 483 in BPS-17, who would get a monthly raise of Rs38,160; 164 in BPS-18, who would get Rs47,165; 90 in BPS-19, who would receive Rs74,055; 51 in BPS-20, who would get Rs86,115, and 13 in BPS-21, who would receive Rs95, 670.

The cabinet also approved hefty sums as senior executive allowance for the chief secretary and inspector general on the pattern of such payment in Punjab.

The official said the move was likely to cost the province’s kitty Rs462.92 million per annum.

He said the officers working against a schedule post would be eligible for the allowance.

The cabinet recently approved upgraded 75,722 employees of various pay scales and regularised the services of 4,743 employees working on 53 projects on contractual basis.

A statement issued here said that the cabinet meeting also approved the sharing of responsibility for the investigation and control of narcotics in the province. Under the approved amendments by the cabinet, police, excise and Anti-Narcotics Force would have a combined domain with shared responsibility to investigate and seize narcotics substance including Methamphetamine, ecstasy, weed, marijuana

It said the draft KP Control of Narcotics Substance Bill 2017 is the first of its kind in the wake of 18th Amendment shaped up by provincial government to curb narcotics in the province.

The draft will be communicated to the select committee as proposed asking for recommendation to be incorporated for the enactment of the bill from the provincial assembly.

The cabinet also approved the procedure for the public sector employees as Khuddumul Hujjaj during the Haj phase. The procedure and deputational process will be worked out by the concerned departments.

It approved enhancement in the minimum spending limit from Rs1 million to Rs1.5 million royalty of gas in the producing districts and making of district and tehsil nazims as members of the committee for petroleum social committee. A nominee MPA of the chief minister would be the chairman of the committee.

The chief minister issued orders for measures to discourage illegal mining in Haripur and Nowshera and regularisation of the whole process of stone crushing.

He asked the relevant quarters to control the loss in the sand lifting from rivers and if there was a visible threat to a river bridge then the whole process should be stopped.

He asked the committee constituted under adviser to the chief minister Akbar Ayub to firm up recommendations as early as possible.

The cabinet conditionally approved the creation of different tehsils throughout the province and asked the relevant quarters to move a summary for the creation of posts for the onward manning in the new tehsils.

Meanwhile, the Provincial Civil Service Officers Association welcomed the approval of the special allowance.

In a statement issued here, coordinator of the association Fahd Ikram Qazi said the payment of the allowance was long standing demand of the officers and they were thankful to chief minister, cabinet and chief secretary for supporting this.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2018