PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Wednesday decided to immediately recruit 15,000 employees, including 6,000 police constables and officers, in seven merged districts of the province previously known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

The decision was made during a high-level meeting held here with Governor Shah Farman in the chair.

Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, adviser to the prime minister on establishment Mohammad Shahzad Arbab, provincial ministers and senior officers also attended the meeting.

Minister says govt wants local body polls held in erstwhile Fata before PA’s

Information minister Shaukat Ali Yousafzai later told reporters that around 30,000 posts of different departments and attached directorates had been lying vacant in seven merged districts.

He said it had been decided to fill 15,000 posts, including 6,000 for police personnel.

The minister said priority for those jobs would be given to local residents. He said officers of the police would also be deployed in seven merged districts to perform their duties along with Levies and Khasadar.

Mr Yousafzai said all relevant departments had been directed to expedite development activities in different sectors, while the timeline of three months had been set for the execution of all schemes to ensure early implementation of projects.

He said the departments and directorates would inform the relevant authorities about vacant posts so that they could be filled within the stipulated period.

The minister said process for holding local government elections in the region was also discussed.

He said the government wanted to hold the local body elections in seven tribal districts before elections for the KP Assembly there.

Mr Yousafzai said the delimitation process had been completed and that the government would ask the Election Commission of Pakistan to announce date for local government polls in the area.

He said the relevant department had been directed to install solar panels in 300 mosques of the region within three months.

The minister said 16 grid stations would be upgraded, while work on 10MW hydel power generation unit in Kurram district would begin very soon.

He said municipal services would be extended to 25 tehsils by March 31.

Mr Yousafzai said the government had accorded top priority to the development of education and health sectors with missing facilities being provided to educational institutions and health centres.

Advisor to the chief minister on education Ziaullah Bangash said budget for the education sector totaled Rs18 billion, including Rs4 billion for the development side.

He said the board of governors for the governor’s model schools would be changed with the immediate priority of the department being the resolution of the issue of attendance in schools.

Mr Bangash said the directorate of education for seven tribal districts had been merged with the province, while the independent monitoring units had begun working in the region to find out missing facilities in schools besides ensuring presence of teachers on duty.

The information minister said the facility of Sehat Insaf Card would be extended to all tribal districts with half of the million families getting cards.

He said the distribution of those cards would begin on Jan 31.

Mr Yousafzai said the hospital administrations had been directed to ensure the provision of emergency medicines in all tribal districts so that the people couldn’t face any problem in getting treatment.

He said the Sports Gala would be organised in tribal districts in Feb, while cultural festivals would be held there in the same month.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2019