Daily Times

The Caretaker Cabinet of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa met here Tuesday under the chairmanship Chief Minister Syed Arshad Hussain Shah took a number of decisions pertaining to the issues of day-to-day affairs of the province and of urgent nature.

The meeting was participated by the cabinet members, the Chief Secretary and administrative secretaries of the province. The Cabinet approved the hiring of transactional Advisor / Legal Consultant for negotiations of agreements regarding private-public partnerships with different entities and in this regard authorized the office of Advocate General of the Province. It approved exemption from section 22-A of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Public Procurement Regulatory Authority Act 2012 enabling the Provincial Culture and Tourism Department to out-source the PTDC properties under Public Private Partnership mode. As a result of 18th Constitutional Amendment in 2010 Federal Ministry of Tourism having been devolved to the provinces, 19 different properties of PTDC were handed over to the Tourism Department of the province.

The outsourcing of these properties to local and international investors will be made under the guidance of Special Investment Facilitation Council. The Cabinet approved a sum of Rs.10 million as grant-in-aid for the provision of Safe dignified living conditions in education to the orphans of Muskan Institute Swat against the demand of Rs.34 million by its management. It is worth mentioning that on the directives of the Chief Secretary, the Additional Secretary Social Welfare Department had visited the said Institute and pointed out that the Organization was facing financial crises due to inflation, particularly food-related items and had proposed the one-time grant-in-aid. The non-profit organization was established in 1968 and has catered to the welfare and education needs of over 1300 orphan girls.

The Cabinet approved a sum of Rs.10 million as grant-in-aid for the provision of an annual suspense fund and grant-in-aid for Umeed Special Education School Peshawar. Since 2015-16 the Provincial Government has been providing grant-in-aid to the Institute which included Rs.5 million each during the years 2015-16 and 2016-17, Rs.10 million each in 2017-18, 2019-20, and 2020-21, Rs.12 million 2021-22 and Rs.5 million during 2022-23.

The Cabinet approved Mrs. Durreh Shahwar and Imran Takkar as members of the Provincial Parole Committee as per Rule-11(2) of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Probation and Parole Rules 2023 read with Section-14(1) of the Probation and Parole Act,2021. It provided for the appointment of two members from the civil society as members of the said Committee for three years. While the Additional Secretary Home and Tribal Affairs is ex-officio the chairman of the said Committee, Inspector General of Prisons is its member and Director of Reclamation and Probation its member-cum-Secretary. The KP Caretaker Government had on June 8, 2023 approved the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Probation and Parole Rules 2022, Rule-11 of which calls for the constitution of the Provincial Parole Committee. The Cabinet enhanced the honorarium for muavineen-e-qazi in Malakand from Rs.1200/- per working day to Rs.2,000. It is worth mentioning that under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Nizam-e-Adle Regulation 2009, as many as 104 muavineen-e-qazi were appointed for 3 years in May 2019.