PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet on Tuesday approved Rs2 million compensation for each of those, who were killed in the suicide bombing of the Peshawar Shia mosque earlier this month.

The cabinet met with Chief Minister Mahmood Khan in the chair and ministers, advisers and administrative secretaries in attendance.

Special assistant to chief minister on information Barrister Mohammad Ali Saif told reporters that the cabinet discussed the payment of compensation of the heirs of the victims of the Koocha Risaldar mosque attack.

He said the cabinet approved the payment of Rs2 million each to the families of those, who lost life in the bombing.

The special assistant said the cabinet also approved the payment of Rs500,000 to the critically injured people and Rs200,000 to those with minor injuries. He said the chief minister directed the relevant officials to prepare compensation cheques within three days for disbursement to the relevant families.

The cabinet also approved Rs1 million compensation each for the families of six people, who were killed by a recent landslide in Alpuri area of Shangla district.

Mr Mahmood ordered amendments to the Relief Act to increase compensation ratio, while the cabinet’s committees on various matters were told to produce reports on their affairs in the next cabinet meeting.

He said the chief minister also ordered the inclusion of bone marrow treatment in the Sehat Card healthcare programme.

He said the cabinet also decided about the start of action against the government employees moving court against inter-departmental issues regarding state land, declaring allotment of the state land to the departments was the sole prerogative of the government.

The cabinet also directed the departments to immediately frame rules under the approved laws. It conditionally approved the transfer of 1,200 kanals of land in Mardan district to the science and information technology department for establishing a special technology zone.

It approved the transfer of the food department’s 25 kanals of land in Haji Camp area of Peshawar to the science and information technology department for setting up the Gandhara Digital Complex.

Barrister Saif said the cabinet also approved the KP Education Monitoring Authority’s Rules of Business, 2021, as well as service rules.

He said the cabinet also approved the constitution of a settlement board to conserve forests and environment to dispose of the cases regarding forestland. The board will consist of the revenue collector, divisional forest officer and a member from the local community.

The CM’s aide said the cabinet approved declaring Koh-i-Suleman area of Dera Ismail Khan district as a conservancy area to provide protection to the wildlife.

The conservancy area was spreads over an area of 58,000 hectares and will ensure the protection of wildlife, including markhors, cheetahs, foxes, bears, jackals, snakes, hawks, eagles and owls.

The cabinet also approved a total of Rs35.158 million compensation for 16,600 people of Lal Qila area in Lower Dir district, who couldn’t cultivate maize crops due to security reasons.

Barrister Saif said the cabinet also approved a compensation of Rs1 million each to those, who died during the bombardment in Khyber tribal district, on the orders of the Peshawar High Court.

Also, the procurement of 1.2 million metric tons of wheat was approved for the year 2022-23.

The chief minister directed the ministers to ensure the presence in provincial assembly meetings for important legislation.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2022