PESHAWAR: Caretaker Chief Minister retired Justice Dost Mohammad Khan on Wednesday directed for the recruitment of secretary, officers and other staff of the Workers Welfare Board (WWB) on regular basis.

Chairing a WWB meeting, he warned against any delay in transparent and merit-based recruitment, according to a statement issued here. The meeting was convened to discuss recruitments in WWB and its functions. Labour department secretary Nizamuddin was also present on the occasion.

The caretaker chief minister also directed to identify responsibilities of the officials and prepare job description for each of the posts. “The department should be run transparently because it is dedicated to the welfare of labourers and there should be no compromise on its functions and performance,” he said, adding that services of WWB should be extended to the newly-merged seven districts of former Fata.

Orders extension of the board’s services to newly-merged tribal districts

He said that the government should not be oblivious to the welfare of working class and there should be a strict accountability system in the department. He said that after the 18th Amendment the WWB and its administrative control was solely the concern of the province.

“This province is poor and backward on multiple fronts, therefore the federal government has space for funding WWB,” he said, adding that there was a dire need to have a permanent mechanism, regular employees and continuous functions for the welfare of labourers. The regular employees could be made accountable for their performance, he added.

Retired Justice Dost Mohammad also directed for improving the rules of business and removal of irregularities and weaknesses in the board. He said that WWB should have a dynamic team to work honestly for the welfare of labourers.

He directed for extending the functions of WWB to the newly-merged seven tribal districts in the province. Under the Constitution, all the laws and regulations have been extended to the seven new districts of the province. All institutions and public entities should be functional showing dynamism in the changed landscape of the province, he said.

Meanwhile, the caretaker CM also met KP Food Safety and Halal Food Authority director general Riaz Mehsud.

He said that it was more important to have regular check on food items in markets to establish a healthy society. “The sale of substandard and illegal things particularly adulterated food items is highly condemnable, which would not be tolerated because these corrupt practices cause various types of dangerous diseases,” said the chief minister.

Provincial caretaker ministers Zafar Iqbal Bangash and Anwarul Haq were also present on the occasion. Mr Mehsud briefed the caretaker chief minister about the initiatives taken to ensure availability of quality food and drinking items at the tourist spots of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He informed him about the overall progress of the authority.

The authority’s chairman said that the traders also cooperated in the drive to take measures against adulterated food and other consumable items.

The caretaker CM lauded cooperation of the traders and said that all the stakeholders should play active role to stop anti-social practices. He said that the system of reward and punishment was necessary to control the social evils in the society.

He stated that environmental pollution and chemical mixing in food items had promoted bad trends in the society. “By eliminating such social crimes, we can save billions of rupees of budgets that could be spent in the health sector,” the chief minister said.

Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2018