PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet on Tuesday tasked a ministerial committee with examining the testing and recruitment regime for the provincial government’s jobs within two weeks over the growing complaints of irregularities by testing agencies.

The committee comprises elementary and secondary education minister Shahram Khan Tarakai, finance minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra, adviser to the chief minister on food Mian Khaleequr Rehman, special assistant to the chief minister on minorities Wazirzada and special assistant on communication and works Riaz Khan.

Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, who chaired the cabinet’s meeting, directed the committee to produce recommendations after two weeks.

No sugar, wheat shortage in province, cabinet told

The meeting was attended by the cabinet members, the chief minister’s advisers and special assistants, chief secretary, and senior government officials.

Spokesman for the government Kamran Khan Bangash and local government minister Akbar Ayub Khan later told reporters that the students and youth faced problems due to irregularities in testing agencies that often led to the cancellation of examinations.

Mr Bangash said the committee would also make recommendations for strengthening the Educational Testing and Evaluation Authority and suggest improvement and make the working of the KP Public Service Commission more transparent to enable make-swift recruitment.

He said those irregularities caused anxiety among youths.

The spokesman said the chief minister told the relevant authorities to either abolish the role of testing agencies in the province or develop mechanisms to ensure that such complaints don’t appear in future.

He said the local body elections in the province would take place in next Sept as decided by the cabinet and the government would work out modalities for the delimitation of constituencies in collaboration with the Election Commission of Pakistan.

Mr Bangash said the government was also framing and updating rules to fully empower local governments to ensure devolution of powers in true spirit and thus, empowering the people at grassroots level.

He said the cabinet tasked local government minister Akbar Ayub Khan with having a close coordination with the ECP for the smooth holding of local body elections in the province.

The spokesman said the PTI members elected nazims and councillors in the last local body polls delivered the goods and served the people and therefore, the people gave the party two-thirds majority in the provincial assembly.

“Our government is committed to decentralising power with the sole aim of serving the people on their doorstep,” he said.

The cabinet was also briefed on the availability of sugar and wheat in the province and was told that the province didn’t have shortages of both items.

Mr Bangash said the cabinet decided that the government would use all available options to ensure the smooth supply of wheat and sugar, including import and domestic procurement.

He said the cabinet was informed that the province required 950,000 metric tons sugar but it produced 300,000-400,000 metric tons, so the sugar shortfall totalled around 500,000 tons.

The spokesman said the cabinet committee on food security was also given two weeks time to recommend whether the province should import sugar or purchase it from the open market to address shortage and price hike.

It also formed a ministerial committee headed by the finance minister to examine the newly- framed government employees retirement age and produce report on it within two weeks.

The retirement age issue came under discussion after the Supreme Court’s decision.

The committee will submit recommendations on the issue to the cabinet within two weeks.

The cabinet also congratulated the residents on the extension of the Sehat Card Plus to the entire province and termed it a major and revolutionary step towards the establishment of a welfare state.

Published in Dawn, February 3rd, 2021