PESHAWAR  -   KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan and Governor KP Shah Farman jointly presided over a meeting of the Apex committee that reviewed the scenario following Supreme Court’s decision striking down the interim arrangements for the 7 merged districts of erstwhile FATA and made a number of decisions for the infrastructure development in the merged districts and frontier regions.

The apex committee approved the creation of 17,000 additional posts in different departments to be proportionally distributed amongst the 7 merged districts.

Corps Commander Peshawar Shaheen Mazhar Mahmood, KP ministers Atif Khan, Shahram Tarakai, Shaukat Yousafzai, Taimur Jhagra, Hasham Inamullah, Advisor to KP CM on merged districts Ajmal Wazir, Chief Secretary Naved Baloch, Additional Chief Secretary Shehzad Bangash, IGP Salahuddin Mehsud, IG FC Major General Rahat Naseem, Advocate General KP Latif Yousafzai and others government and military functionaries attended the meeting.

The meeting took for debate the overall merger plan for development integration of erstwhile FATA, the induction of levies and Khasadar forces into regular police, creation of posts in  police, education, health and other sectors, a comprehensive development package for mainstreaming the people of these areas, quick impact initiatives in health and education sectors, repatriation and rehabilitation of people of these areas and extension of judicial system, operational and investigative policing, extension of Sehat Insaf Card, solarisation of different projects, university, medical college and teaching hospital, extension of IMU in education sector, functional and administrative issues, Cadet College Mohmand, different hospitals in the merged districts and handing over of different near-to-completion health projects to the department and made a number of decisions in the backdrop of Supreme Court decision.

The meeting agreed to facilitate extension of judicial system of the country and KP to the merged districts as after repelling of Article 247 of the constitution, the merged areas have become part of KP and therefore the existing in vogue laws would be applicable to the new districts.

The infrastructure development would be carried out with accelerated pace and the federal government would be approached for the resources in order to put on ground a uniform development system and a system of dispensation of justice which would be notified. The meeting was briefed about the possible issues and the remedial measures as a way forward to overcome challenges.

The chief minister advised to focus on the development integration of the people, implementation on the decision of the Supreme Court, taking care of administrative matters without any wastage of time so that the Supreme Court decision is implemented in letter and spirit. The meeting discussed the possible irritants to be created by the forces of status quo and thoroughly debated step by step and the long term approach so that no vacuum prevailed both legally and administratively. The meeting agreed to notify the extension of judiciary.

Chief Minister said that we have to take result-oriented approach as a knee jerk reaction could backfire in the process of implementation. We have to win the hearts and minds of the people within the interim period and we have to manage the challenging issues.

The meeting agreed to the induction of levies and Khasadar into the regular police following the set criteria making legislation for the induction of federal force into provincial force as per the vision of the Prime Minister Imran Khan who pledged the people of erstwhile FATA during his visit. The additional posts to be created in different public sector institutions would also be offered to the locals.

The Chief Minister advised the participants to look into administrative and political challenges removing the uncertainty. The meeting also agreed to the judicial complexes, the 12 thousands levies and 18 thousands Khasadar and approval to the 6,000 additional force to be proportionally distributed among the new districts.

It also agreed to the sequential induction of police in the merged districts and approved the skeleton staff both for the judiciary and police for smooth facilitation. However, the core headquarter of police and home would sit together to work out modalities to finalize the plan. The Chief Minister directed for financial and administrative steps for covering the legal dimension of the plan.

The judicial courts and the police both investigative and operational would be setup within the adjoining districts which would be supported by the levies and Khasadar.

The meeting agreed to the announcement of a full package covering developmental side of the merger and mainstreaming side for rehabilitation and repatriation of affected people, reconstruction of their houses, the provision of basic facilities including health and education. There would be additional 7600 new posts for the merged areas however under the quick impact plan the developmental strategy would be accelerated, the health and education sector projects would be expeditiously completed, doctors and health staff, teachers and deficiencies in health sectors would be overcome.

The chief minister agreed to generate resources for the provision of all basic facilities however these activities should be completed under timelines and for which necessary PC-1 should be completed.

The meeting was informed that ban has been lifted from the post of BPS-1 to BPS-15 and recruitment would be made on these posts as expeditiously as possible. However recruitment of Post BPS 16 and above would be made through public service commission. Sehat Insaf Card would be extended within one and half month up to five lakh families. The meeting directed to communicate to the federal government for early implementation on the schemes.

The solarisation of different projects was also cleared by the meeting. It also agreed to the creation of 2,384 posts for which SNEs should be prepared on war footings. The Chief Minister said that with these steps the people of the backward areas would receive immediate relief.

The Chief Minister also directed health department to make functional the trauma centre in Parachinar of Kurram district and necessary steps should immediately be taken. He also directed the health department to take over hospitals Kurram, Miran Shah, Mohmand and prepare PC-1 to arrange basic requirements in these hospitals.

The Chief Minister also directed the quarter concerned for the accelerated movement on the medical college, teaching hospital and a University announced by the Prime Minister during his visit to erstwhile FATA. PC-1 should be prepared for these projects and added that he himself would inaugurate these projects.

Regarding the extension of IMU to the merged districts, the Chief Minister expressed his optimism that this would bring positive impact in the education sector.

The schools in the erstwhile FATA could be made functional and the presence of teachers could be ensured adding that relevant quarters should pay surprise visits to ensure that the schools are functional up to capacity. We would move from paper work to actual ground and the existing policy in this regard would be extended to the newly merged districts.

The meeting also highlighted the repatriation of affected people and the Chief Minister directed for a survey covering all damages, administrative and other issues in order to give a compensation package to the affected people in this regard. It also agreed to the food package and assistance allowance to be carried out by the relief department.