PESHAWAR: President Dr Arif Alvi on Wednesday said the alternate dispute resolution mechanisms could be adopted in the newly-merged tribal districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for the speedy resolution of the people’s grievances.

“Alternate dispute resolution will reduce burden on the conventional justice system besides helping improve the overall law and order situation in the [tribal] region,” the president said during a briefing on the province’s development projects at the Governor’s House here,. Provincial finance and health minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra, chief secretary and other senior officials attended the briefing, according to a news release issued by the President Secretariat’s Press Wing.

The president also called for the execution of “financially sustainable and viable development projects and reduction in pilferage in government departments’ expenditure to enhance efficiency and reduce the financial burden on governments.”

He said the better planning and implementation of development projects by trained and qualified people could help improve overall service delivery.

Says ADR mechanism will reduce burden on conventional justice system

Dr Alvi said better financial controls and enhanced accountability of government departments would help improve the ‘efficiency and efficacy’ of development projects and reduce burden on the exchequer.

He appreciated the provincial government’s development activities and called for an effective end to the gap between people’s expectations and service delivery.

The president said necessary infrastructure and basic facilities, especially in the health and education sectors, should be commensurate with the people’s needs and that better planning and implementation of development projects could help fill the supply-demand gap.

He said the authorities should focus on the prevention of diseases both communicable and non-communicable diseases and that the overall disease burden could be reduced by adopting necessary precautionary measures and healthy living.

“This will help reduce the burden on government health infrastructure and save precious resources,” he said.

During the meeting, the president was briefed about development projects undertaken by the provincial government and the overall law and order situation in the province.

According to the news release, since the inception of the Sehat Cards in the province, 1.5 million patients have availed treatment facilities worth almost Rs27 billion in different hospitals of the province.

It said the roads spread over 1,005km had been constructed during the last four years, 1,071 schools were being established or renovated, and 200 BHUs, 50 RHCs, and 25 DHQs were being revamped and converted into 24/7 facilities.

Also in the day, President Dr Arif Alvi attended a briefing at Governor’s House on projects related to the province’s digital transformation and called for equipping the bureaucracy with the relevant tools and skills for efficient service delivery.

He added that a specialised cadre of bureaucracy could be raised to help governments speed up their digital transformation journey and facilitate in the digitalisation of government services and business processes.

During the meeting, where IT minister Atif Khan and senior officials of the KP Information Technology Board were also in attendance, the president said there was a need for digitalising all aspects of governance by introducing e-governance at all levels of the government and that access to IT and basic IT infrastructure should be improved.

He said digitalisation of government business would ensure efficient and efficacious service delivery besides helping reduce financial pilferages and leakages.

Dr Alvi urged educational institutions to produce market-ready employable graduates by equipping them with marketable and in-demand skills through professional degrees as well as two-year associate degrees.

He said partnerships and collaborations among academia, industry and governments should be actively encouraged and pursued to produce market-ready skilled graduates and get them placements in the industry, which would help fulfil the market demand for skilled professionals.

“Technical and vocational programmes and institutes need to be strengthened and revitalised for youths skill development as it will help provide gainful employment to youth,” he said.

The president also underlined the need for more skill-development programmes on the pattern of Prime Ministers Digi-Skills programme and said almost 2.4 million people from different academic programmes had benefitted from the programme.

He said online and virtual education could help enhance the number of graduates, who could be provided additional training for three to six months to make them ready in line with market needs.

The president said steps should be taken to improve the internet connectivity and basic IT infrastructure in the country to fully benefit from emerging business opportunities. He said youth, especially women, could offer their services online while working from home and earn foreign exchange for the country and improve their families socioeconomic status.

The KPITB officials briefed participants about initiatives for the province’s digital transformation and said two incubation centres had been established, while $500,000 had been disbursed to start-ups to strengthen the start-up ecosystem.

They said 100,000 youngsters had been trained under the KP Youth Empowerment Programme and Employable Digital Skills initiative of the government, besides providing internship opportunities to KPs youth and women in industry.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2022