PESHAWAR - As compared to the previous governments, the PTI-led coalition government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa showed much improvement in the health and education sectors, besides bringing reforms in the police department in the last four years, however, it remained failed to complete the much awaited mega projects like Bus Rapid Transit system for Peshawar and Zoo project for Palosi.
The incumbent government has focused the reform agenda and spent billion of rupees for the improvement of education and health sectors missing facilities.
Provision of missing facilities in schools
The influx of the students from the private schools towards the government schools has proved that something has been positively changed in the last four years as Rs19 billion have been spent on the missing facilities and the construction of the boundary walls in the government run schools.
As per the official statistics, around 151,000 students have been shifted from private schools to the government-run schools, adding that the KP government has equalized the syllabus and the course work with the private schools. The migrated students include 100,937 boys and 50,673 girls. The high migration was recorded in the Haripur district of KP with 16,684 students while DI Khan stood second with 12,986 students and Mardan third with 11,324 migrated students.
Teachers training programme
The KP government has also spent a huge amount on the teachers training through the British Council. More than 25,000 teachers have been recruited through the National Testing Service (NTS) purely on merit. The recruitment of the staff in these government schools has overcome the shortage of the teaching staff in the primary and high schools.
Teaching staff and special monitoring officers have also been recruited in the district education offices to visit the far-flung area schools for checking the duty hours and absence of the teachers.
If the inspecting team found any teacher missing from his/her class during the duty hours, their one day salary being cut down from his account.
Similarly, a system of punishment and reward has also been established for the first time in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. As a result, Rs170 million were recovered from the missing teachers and awarded to those teachers who demonstrated good performance in the academic year.
In addition, to bring reforms in the higher level education system, the government has established a Women University Mardan, a Girls Cadet College, Mardan, Gajo Khan Medical College, Swabi, Medical College, Dir and a medical college in Nowshera along with a state of the art hospital, Qazi Husain Ahmad Hospital in Nowshera.
Health reforms
The provincial government spent a huge amount of its annual budgets on revamping the existing health system, both at the primary and tertiary care levels as a record number of medical staff and doctors have been recruited in various hospitals of the province.
The government also enacted several laws to improve health care facilities in the hospitals and in this connection Medical Teaching Institute (MTI) reform was promulgated, despite multiple challenges on the part of health mafia.
Under the MTI law, all teaching hospitals in the province would be managed by the Board of Governor (BoG) under the leadership of the BoG chairman.
The BoG chairman will assist the director and medical director of the hospitals who will keep a close watch over the doctor’s attendance and hospital facilities.
The entire record of these hospitals has been digitalized and made an online system of laboratory receipts along with the biometric attendance.
To utilize the hospital resources in the second shift, an institute based practice has been launched in all government-run hospitals in the province whereas specialist doctors checking the patients inside the hospital.
Some percentage collected by the doctors also given to the hospital to generate revenue. This institute based practice was launched for the purpose of bringing the hospital machinery under usage in the second time.
Police reforms
Likewise, a number of steps have been taken to improve the police system of the province, and for this purpose, a huge amount has been spent in the last four years. The government has also promulgated the police reform act, in which, the chief minister has delegated his power to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to transfer DPO or a high ranking officer.
The IGP has been authorized to recruit police personnel through the National Testing service (NTS) purely on merit, which aimed to bring the honest and young professional in the KP police department.
To improve the capacity building of the KP police, a large number of police schools, investigation, riots management, and intelligence centers, police schools for traffic management, explosive handling, and information technology have also been established.
Similarly, the provincial government has also improved the police station culture by bringing a system of dispute resolution council which aimed to settle the dispute before taking it to the court.
Police access service and model police stations have been established in various districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
Forest, agriculture sectors
The KP government has utilized its 100 per cent budget in the forest and agriculture sectors whereas special seeds have been distributed among farmers for this purpose.
To boost fruit production, the KP government established a special orchard on fertile agrarian land. For the first time in the history of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the Agriculture Department has utilized 100 per cent of its annual budget for bringing improvement in this sector.
For the development of the forest sector, the KP government launched “The Billion Tree Tsunami Project” in scattered parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
Under this project, a large number of trees have been planted in the mountains of Swat, Buner, Shangla, and Batagram.
Local government reforms
The local government department also showed improvement. The KP government, after holding local bodies’ elections, released funds to the local level representatives for cementing streets and digging water schemes.
Soon after the LG elections, the government withdrew its funds from the local government representatives; however, in the second year, they were provided funds to complete local schemes.
For the first time, a cleanliness campaign was carried through the local government funds even at rural level and all heaps of garbage thrown out from the populated area to provide a clean environment to the citizen across KP.
Right to Information law
The Right to Information (RTI) is also a hallmark of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government, through which any person could get vital government information regarding any project within 20 days. In the case of not providing information by the concern press information officer (PIO), the applicant may file an appeal to the RTI commissioner for the provision of information.
Sports, culture
The KP government also demonstrated its efficiency in sports and culture and for the first time, the government allocated a handsome amount for artists’ welfare. The government paying Rs30,000 per month to each artist.
The relevant department organized some 16,000 events comprised of the old traditional games across Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and spent Rs100 million on the Revival of Indigenous Cultural Heritage (RICH).
The department also holds cultural events in various parts of the province to restore the old glory of Hujra and traditional music of Tang Takoor.
Failure to complete mega projects
Despite the aforementioned success, the KP government remained failed to complete mega projects like Bus Rapid Transit system for Peshawar and establishment of Zoo in Palosi.
The government has not contributed practically in these launched projects and despite spending four precious years in the government.
The government could not implement the Bus Rapid Transit service which was a main slogan of the PTI-led government.
The Zoo project, which was inaugurated by the KP government some three years ago, could not be completed and the residents of the area could not get a healthy recreational facility in their area.
Political experts have the view that the powerful law of the Ehtesab Commission (EC), which was able to arrest some big fish in the cases of corruption, also became toothless as it will sort prior permission of chief minister and speaker before arresting any member of the provincial Assembly.
This amendment in the Ehtesab law has reduced the importance of strict accountability system in the province.