PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet on Friday approved the appointment of regular vice-chancellors to eight government universities in the province.

The VCs included Prof Mohammad Idrees for the University of Peshawar, Prof Sardar Khan for the Kohat University of Science and Technology, Dr Khairuz Zaman for the University of Science & Technology Bannu, Dr Bashir Ahmad for the Bacha Khan University Charsadda, Dr Shahid Mahmood Baig for the University of Swabi, Dr Zahoorul Haq for the Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, Dr Zafar M Khan for the Shuhada-e-APS University of Technology Nowshera and Dr Iftikhar Hussain for the University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar.

The higher education department will notify the appointment of VCs after approval by the governor, who is also the chancellor of the public sector universities in the province.

The cabinet, whose meeting was chaired by Chief Minister Mahmood Khan here, examined the names recommended by the search committee for filling VC vacancies and chose one from them for each of the eight universities. Interviews for the vacant posts were conducted by the search committee headed by noted scientist Dr Attaur Rehman on Nov 17 and 18.

The tenure of the regular VCs of eight public sector universities had expired in last June and July and since then, the pro-vice-chancellors have been officiating these offices.

According to sources, 60 out of 200 applicants were called for interview, while the committee recommended a panel of three names for every university.

Also in the cabinet meeting, the chief minister said the low pressure of Sui gas was a serious issue of the people in the province, so it had been taken up with the relevant federal authorities for early resolution.

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“If the issue is not resolved, the provincial government will utilise all available options to get the issue resolved in the larger public interest,” an official statement quoted him as saying.

The chief minister directed the provincial departments to ensure implementation of the decisions taken in the last cabinet meeting regarding current Annual Development Programme further directing that approval of PC-1s for all developmental schemes reflected in current ADP be ensured within the deadlines.

The cabinet approved the establishment of the city local governments at seven divisional headquarters of the province for local body elections and formed its committee to review all related matters and the amendments proposed for the local government law regarding private housing schemes.

The committee will complete the task and finalise recommendations within 10 days before sending the report to the cabinet for final decision in the next meeting.

The committee comprises local government, law, health and education ministers and advocate general.

The cabinet also approved the reconstitution of the delimitation authority of the local government department as coordination unit.

The cabinet also approved the draft of a proposed to prevent violence against health service providers, patients and their attendants and damage to property in healthcare service facilities.

It approved in principle the outsourcing of selected public sector hospitals of far-flung areas of the province to ensure improve service delivery in those hospitals.

The cabinet accorded approval to the allocation of 90 per cent of seats for the students of the province and 10 per cent for the students of other provinces on reciprocal basis for admission to private medical colleges in the province.

It also discussed the proposed amendments to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mines and Mineral Act, 2017, to remove complications in the lease of mineral resources in merged areas and formed a committee comprising the additional chief secretary and advocate general to review the matter and submit recommendations to the effect.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2020