PESHAWAR: Caretaker Chief Minister Dost Mohammad Khan took serious notice of the mismanagement and weak systems of monitoring and protection of women in the shelter homes in the province.

He directed the officials concerned to provide full protection, hygienic food, quality education and training and free treatment along with other necessities of life to the helpless women. He also ordered them to complete SOPs without any delay and replace the male staff with female staff in the shelter homes.

He stressed the need for making the shelter houses well functional and taking them back from the local government department under the relevant rules and regulations. He also formed a committee consisting of four members and hinted at taking a final decision in the next cabinet meeting.

Takes note of mismanagement

The chief minister issued these orders during a meeting here on Monday, says a statement.

The secretary of social welfare department gave a detailed briefing regarding shelter homes and informed him about their problems. Caretaker Minister Sara Safdar, Principal Secretary to CM Akbar Khan, deputy commissioner and other relevant officers attended the meeting.

The chief minister constituted a committee comprising minister for law, minister for agriculture, minister for social welfare and advisor to chief minister on social welfare to look into the SOPs of shelter homes.

He directed the officials to provide full protection to the helpless women residing in the shelter homes and monitor effectively the working of the institutions.

He warned against any compromise on protection of women. He also banned entry of men into shelter homes and directed that from security guard to the director the whole system should consist of women. The services of lady constable should be hired as guard, he added.

Meanwhile, the caretaker chief minister warned against bad governance and attributed it to injustice, exploitation, wastage of resources and piling up the problems of the hapless people leading to societal degradation.

Chairing a meeting, he said that burns centre was needed in Peshawar on emergency basis to provide prompt treatment to the victims.

“It is strange to see the astronomical spending but with no fruit at the end. The public interest should be supreme and everybody should take care of this,” he added.

Caretaker provincial ministers Abdur Rauf Khattak, Akbar Jan Marwat, Dr Daud, administrative secretaries of relevant department and other high level officers attended the meeting.

The chief minister stressed the need for systematic population control that could be achieved through education, awareness and proper training. He said that mismatch between planning and execution agencies would resultantly lead to wastage of resources and time.

He said that centralisation of facilities unnecessarily created congestion and people suffered. He said that upgradation of facilities was necessary but it did not mean concentration of facilities in one city.

“The best solution is decentralisation of facilities so that these are availed by the people at their doorsteps,” he added.

The chief minister directed the officials to start performance audit system in the medical colleges and hospitals and functionalise the burns centre as soon as possible. He said that the newly constructed buildings should be handed over to the relevant departments so that those could be made functional without any delay.

He said that projects should be durable and complete in all aspects. The overall performance of the relevant company should be taken into consideration before awarding it a contract, he added.

The chief minister directed the officials concerned to provide medical facilities to poor people at local level and upgrade the standard of district level medical institutes to reduce rush on major hospitals.

Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2018