PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa caretaker Chief Minister retired Justice Dost Mohammad on Tuesday announced to give his salary and other perks and privileges to the orphans, needy children and deserving people in the society.

A statement issued here said that Justice Dost directed the need-driven expansion of social welfare institutions at the district level, improving security at Darul Amans and proper training of relevant officials.

The caretaker chief minister expressed anguish over the delay in the finalisation of policy for transgender persons and directed the authorities to finalise it within a week. He also ordered opening a universal access number to register the complaints of women harassment and sale and purchase of acids, and hinted at promulgating an ordinance by his government soon.

The chief minister also directed measures to curb early marriages and professional beggars. He said the disabled should be shifted to the rehabilitation centres and that the mafia using beggars as shield for illegal earnings should be discouraged. He directed that Darul Amaan in Chitral should be made functional.

Justice Dost also ordered steps to properly showcase the items made by the special children, and upgrading the industrial training centres.

He also directed to create awareness among the women to get easy access to the institutions responsible for mitigating their grievances. He said data about the chronic diseases should be collected so that safety measures could be taken for the health of children. He said if the government had the resources it should establish its own Islamic centres and madressahas to produce scholars of repute as giving stipends would not serve the real purpose of gaining Islamic education.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2018