SWABI: District Nazim Ameer Rehman has asked the officials of various government departments to follow merit in all official matters and stop giving undue importance to provincial ministers.

Addressing a meeting here on Wednesday that was attended by the officials of police, education, Pesco, irrigation and various other departments, he said that provincial ministers could no longer dictate them.

“The heads of all departments, which fall in jurisdiction of district government, attended the meeting. The district nazim and officials discussed various aspects to run and strengthen the institutions,” said Mustafa Kamal, the spokesperson for the district government.

Sources said that the gathering was planned to educate the officials about the district government policy and keeping them away from the influence of provincial government, especially Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Asad Qaisar and Provincial Minister for Health Shahram Khan Tarakai.

Insiders said that the district government and lawmakers of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Awami Jamhoori Ittehad Pakistan belonging to Swabi were heading for a showdown. The district nazim has also imposed ban on new recruitments.

“We have planned that merit and only merit would the criteria for the fresh appointments and none of the employees would be transferred on political basis,” said Mr Kamal quoted the district nazim as saying.

TOURNAMENT: The annual sports games in the public sector middle, high and higher secondary schools would be held in October.

The heads of the educational institutions have been informed and the district tournament committee, which is headed by Nusir Bacha, has also been formed.

The committee members would supervise all the sport activities in the four tehsils and the district, sources said.

They said that the physical education teachers (PETs) would train the students to participate in the tournament first at zonal level, then at tehsil and finally at the district level.

The district has been divided into eight zones and each zone has its own head.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2015

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