Daily Times

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Tuesday passed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa taking over of the Industrial Estate or Economic Zone Bill 2016 and the KP Adhoc Employees of Directorate of Information Technology (Regularisation of Services Act 2016).

The former law transfers all the assets, properties, liabilities and employees of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Development Authority (KPDA) or Sarhad Development Authority (SDA) to the public limited company ‘K-P Economic Zones Development and Management Company’ (KPEZDMC).

The government had abolished the KPDA, established in 1972 via an act, in July by issuing an ordinance titled, ‘K-P Taking Over of the Industrial Estates or Economic Zones Ordinance, 2016.’

The law minister also tabled the K-P Public Private Partnership Amendment Act 2016, a bill aimed at making changes in five sections of the K-P Public Private Partnership Act 2014.

The bill makes changes in the section-9 of the act, making it mandatory for the contracting authority —government entity — to take the approval of the chief minister for projects costing more than Rs 500 million if it wishes to do them in the public-private partnership mode, while for projects costing up to Rs 500 million the contracting authority shall decide for itself the mode of its implementation under the PPP Act or else.

The bill also increases a member of the Public Private Partnership Committee and states that the chief executive officer of the KP Board of Investment and Trade shall be the member of the committee

Earlier, in the question answer session, Pakistan People’s Party lawmaker, Fakhar-e-Azam Khan, asked details regarding saplings planted across the province under the PTI, Tree Tsunami project.

As per the detail of the Environment Department over 93.5 million saplings have been planted across 28 forest divisions in the province.

Fakhar-e-Azam Wazir said that the project was just limited to the social media and there was no progress on the project.

The Special Assistant to the Chief Minister on Environment, Muhammad Ishtiaq Urmar, in response said that the project was running successfully and was praised internationally.

He invited Fakhar-e-Azam and other lawmakers for a trip to witness the success of the project. He told the house that they buy a Unit Nursery at Rs 150, 000 to Rs 180, 000 from private nurseries and a unit nursery comprising three kanal areas.

Due to the absence of the lawmakers some important issues were delayed which were on the agenda of the assembly. The session was adjourned till Friday.