Peshawar          -      Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Mahmood Khan, has directed all cabinet members and administrative secretaries for result-oriented steps to improve performance of their respective departments up to the desired level.

Chairing a meeting of provincial cabinet on Tuesday, Mahmood Khan said that all ministers, special assistants and advisors have been given full authority regarding affairs of their respective departments. He said they are also responsible for the better performance of their departments. The ministers, advisors and special assistants as well as their administrative secretaries are required to deliver to improve the performance of their respective departments in order to ensure better service to the public as per the vision of incumbent government.

He said that the overall performance of the government was linked with the individual performance of the departments, so all the departments are required to show better. The Chief Minister said that he himself worked day and night, and expected the same from his team members. He directed all the ministers to go to their respective constituencies soon after the budget session, and to monitor the government’s initiatives launched to strengthen the health service delivery system in the districts to effectively deal the prevailing situation of corona pandemic.

He said that soon after the budget session he would hold regular meetings to review the performance of all the departments and directed the heads of all the departments to improve the performance and to achieve the targets of their departments as per the given timelines.

Expressing his dissatisfaction over the poor performance of food departments, he made it clear that strict action would be initiated against all those found responsible for the poor performance. He directed the high ups to ensure that the targets set for the local procurements of wheat are achieved this year.

Later,briefing the media about the decisions taken in the cabinet meeting, Advisor to the KPK CM on Information, Ajmal Wazir said that the cabinet approved Medical Teaching Institutes Draft amendment Bill 2020. Under the proposed amendments, new mechanism for the appointment and dissolution of the board of governors has been put in place.

Similarly, the cabinet also approved a mechanism to give pension benefits to those government servants who had opted to be institutional employees of the MTIs. This decision will benefit as many as 400 senior doctors and other health professionals of the MTIs.

Ajmal Wazir told the media that the cabinet accorded exemptions to Energy and Power Department of the relevant KPPRA rules for hiring the consultancy service of an international firm (IFC)to start work on the 188MW Naran Hydel Power Project and 96MW Batta Kundi Hydel Power Project under Public Private Partnership. The cabinet also approved grant-in-aid for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Oil and Gas Company Limited (KPOGCL) to work in partnership with other companies for oil and gas exploration in the newly merged districts.

He said the cabinet also approved in principle the draft of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance 2020 to ensure safety of mine workers and constituted a cabinet committee comprising of Shaukat Yousafzai, Sultan Muhammad Khan, Abdul Karim and Wazir Zada to further improve the draft ordinance. The advisor said that the cabinet approved the name of Muhammad Ashfaq Khattak as private member of the Board of Directors of Trans Peshawar Company.

Ajmal Wazir said the cabinet did not agree with the matter of extension in the tenure of six Vice Chancellors of public sectors universities of the province and directed the concerned department for new appointments as per rules and regulations.