Syed Haider Imam
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
Top KPEC appointments arouse controversy
PESHAWAR: The appointment of director general and prosecutor general to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission has opened another Pandoras Box as the provincial assemblys legislative committee has not recommended their names for the key positions, which is mandatory under the law.
Under the Ehtesab Commission Act 2014, a search and scrutiny committee would select two suitable candidates from among five top aspirants for these key positions and send their names to legislative committee of the provincial assembly for selection.
The fresh controversy emerged after documents obtained under the Right to Information Act revealed that the assembly secretariat had provided record about the selection process of the chief Ehtesab commissioner and other KPEC commissioners.
The secretariat also provided details about the search and scrutiny committee, which recommended five names for the positions of KPEC director general and prosecutor general.
However, the record of the legislative committee, which gives final approval of appointment to the two positions, is not available with the assemblys secretariat.
DG, prosecutor general not recommended by assemblys legislative committee
Only the documents related to meetings of the search committee, which had recommended and selected DG retired Lt-Gen Hamid Khan and prosecutor general Yahya Zahid Gillani are available.
Retired Lt-Gen Hamid had resigned last February against the promulgation of an ordinance by the government, which drastically amended the Ehtesab Act of 2015.
Mr. Gillani is still holding his position.
Something is fishy. The assembly secretariat doesnt have minutes of the meeting of the legislative committee, one source said.
The assembly speaker is the chairman of the committee, which recommends names for these positions.
The secretariat has no knowledge that how and who has recommended names of these two persons, the source said, adding that only a copy of the advertisement about the two positions was available with the relevant section of the assembly secretariat.
Sources insisted the record of the appointment of chief commissioner and commissioners of the Ehtesab Commission existed.
They said proper legal procedure was adopted in the selection and appointments of chief commissioner and commissioners.
The procedure for the selection of chief commissioner, commissioners, director general and prosecutor general is the same under the act. Officials said that the search and scrutiny committee would send names of the candidates to the legislative committee for final selection.
Since the setting up of the commission under the Ehtesab Commission Act, it continued to face controversies one after another.
Initially, the lawmakers failed to mention the date from which the commission was empowered to start accountability. However, an amendment was later made to the law making it applicable since 2004.
Afterwards, it transpired that the applicability of the Code of Criminal Procedure had not been included in the law that resulted in the release of several suspects on bail.
Interestingly, it surfaced almost a year after the KPEC became functional that the government had not issued a notification for its establishment though it was required under the law.
The required notification was issued in Sept last year.
Law secretary Mohammad Arifeen was not available for comments.
Published in Dawn September 7th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1282607/top-kpec-appointments-arouse-controversy
PHC gets upset when .....
CM gets contempt notice in botanical garden land case
PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Tuesday issued the contempt of court notices to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and two others over the possession of a vast piece of land of the University of Peshawars botanical garden in Azakhel area by the Nowshera district administration in violation of the courts order.
Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim issued the order on a contempt of court petition filed by the University of Peshawars syndicate against the Nowshera district governments act of cancelation of lease of the land given for the Botanical Garden and Centre of Bio-Diversity and taking of the possession of that land early this year.
The next date of hearing into the petition will be fixed later.
Apart from Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, the two other respondents in the case are Nowshera district nazim and CMs brother Liaquat Khattak and deputy commissioner Iftikhar Alam.
Mian Muhibullah Kakakhel and Saifullah Muhib, lawyers for the petitioner, said On Feb 24, 2014, the chief minister had ordered the handing over of around 500 kanals of the botanical gardens land for the setting up of two other universities, Air University and Technical University.
They added that on June 9, 2014, the high court had declared the said CM order illegal and that the government had challenged the verdict in the Supreme Court but later withdrew the petition.
The lawyers pointed out that despite losing the said case, the district nazim had issued an order on Feb 3 to cancel the lease of the land measuring 567 kanals and that the administration CM gets contempt notice in botanical garden land case had directed the UoP to hand it over to the government.
They added that while the high court issued directives to the respondents to maintain status quo on the issue, they took possession of the said land and locked the main entrance to the botanical garden.
Mr. Muhibuillah pointed out that there were various under-research unique species of fish and plants in the botanical garden, which needed great care on day-to-day basis and if they were not taken care of properly, the same would lose its worth.
The petitioner claimed that in Dec 2003, the UoP syndicate had approved the establishment of Centre of Plant Biodiversity, which included setting up of a Botanical Garden in Azakhel, Nowshera.
He said the Higher Education Commission in order to support the university in its efforts to establish the centre had sanctioned a grant of Rs37.861 million.
The petitioner said the Nowshera district government had leased out land measuring 689 kanals to the university to establish the centre through a lease deed issued on Dec 16, 2005 for a period of 99 years.
He said the Nowshera district government had issued a notice to the university in Dec 2015 showing its intention to cancel the lease and that after the university submitted a reply to the said notice, the district government issued the impugned order on Feb 3 canceling the lease of 567 of the total 689 kanals of land.
Published in Dawn September 7th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1282606/cm-gets-contempt-notice-in-botanical-garden-land-case
Commission starts monitoring of healthcare centres
PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Healthcare Commission (KPHC) has taken action against 500 outlets for indulging in illegal medical practices and efforts are underway to streamline the health delivery system and provide quality services to the patients.
KPHC board of governors chairman Dr Mohammad Zaffar said this at a workshop here on Tuesday. Senior consultants and medical experts and managers also spoke on the occasion.
Dr Zaffar, a former director-general health services, said that action against over 500 institutions and healthcare outlets, including diagnostic centres, had been taken. He said that most of these outlets operated illegally in rural areas and some in Peshawar city.
Official says action taken against 500 outlets for indulging in illegal practices
He said that the stakeholders from all medical sectors needed to help the commission in pointing out such illegally-run medical centres and unauthorised practitioners.
Dr Zaffar said that KPHC had also been evolving a plan for capacity building of medical practitioners, paramedics and nurses with the help of both public and private sectors.
He claimed that the commission was making efforts to ensure monitoring and evaluation of all healthcare delivery centres through independent monitors and auditors. He said that priority was being given to frame a system to discourage sale of medicines without prescription.
This will only be possible with maximum coordination of legal, authorised and qualified medical practitioners with the commission, he remarked. He said that the commission had initiated work, which also included taking action against all unauthorised medical practitioners and diagnostic centres.
HCCs chief executive officer Asif Naveed said that the stakeholders should help them in pinpointing of the gray and black areas as well as support them in evolving a strategy for resolving all such problems. He said that a strategy was being devised for the promotion of notified pricing list in all medical and diagnostic centres.
Dr Sidra Jabbar said that health delivery system could be streamlined with merit-based appointments and postings and utilisation of funds and resources according to the needs.
Published in Dawn September 7th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1282595/commission-starts-monitoring-of-healthcare-centres
Peshawar water sample tests negative for poliovirus
PESHAWAR: The environmental water sample for poliovirus in Peshawar has tested negative after remaining positive in July due to the quality campaign in the provincial capital, which is one of the three core polio reservoirs along with Quetta and Karachi, according to officials.
It is a big success because the months of August and September are the most dangerous during which polio virus remains most active and chances of more cases loom large during this period, they said, adding that it was the most positive sign that they were able to eliminate poliovirus from Peshawar.
It shows that the province, which has recorded seven of the total 14 nationwide cases in 2016, is on its way to become polio-free by December this year. The province is bound to stop circulation of poliovirus by end of the year in consonance with the New Emergency Action Plan approved by the prime minister on July 9.
The plan seeks to eradicate poliomyelitis by end of the 2017 from the country.
The water sample from Shaheen Muslim Town was tested negative twice in the months of May and June, but it tested positive in July which upset the health department. An inquiry was conducted to know about the causes of the presence of the virus in the water.
KP is expected to become polio-free by December this year
The inquiry found that there was no major issue with vaccination campaigns. It recommended that some minor issues like monitoring of vaccinators should be strengthened.
Officials said that other gaps and weaknesses found by the inquiry were also plugged to get the desired results. The World Health Organisation has appreciated the health department for eliminating virus from the city which had been posing threats to polio eradication efforts for the past few years.
Since the positivity of sample in July, we conducted high quality campaigns due to which the sample emerged negative again, said officials. They added that they kept close watch on the vaccination efforts to put brakes on the re-entry of poliovirus by administering oral polio vaccines to all those coming there from Fata as well as Afghanistan.
The WHO has been collecting environmental samples from from sewerage sites in Shaheen Muslim Town, Larama and Dhando Pul areas to see presence of poliovirus on monthly basis.
The sample from Shaheen Muslim Town tested negative in May and June after staying positive since November 2015.
Not only Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but Fata has also recorded huge success in eradication of poliovirus as only two cases have been recorded in 2016 where polio count remained 16 in 2015 and 179 in 2014.
Both the cases detected in 2016 belonged to South Waziristan Agency and the victims had crossed over to Afghanistan when military action was started there.
Improvement in Fata and KP are good signs for polio eradication campaign in the country as both remained stumbling block in the way of doing with vaccine-preventable childhood ailment, said sources.
Published in Dawn September 7th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1282592/peshawar-water-sample-tests-negative-for-poliovirus
PESHAWAR: The appointment of director general and prosecutor general to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission has opened another Pandoras Box as the provincial assemblys legislative committee has not recommended their names for the key positions, which is mandatory under the law.
Under the Ehtesab Commission Act 2014, a search and scrutiny committee would select two suitable candidates from among five top aspirants for these key positions and send their names to legislative committee of the provincial assembly for selection.
The fresh controversy emerged after documents obtained under the Right to Information Act revealed that the assembly secretariat had provided record about the selection process of the chief Ehtesab commissioner and other KPEC commissioners.
The secretariat also provided details about the search and scrutiny committee, which recommended five names for the positions of KPEC director general and prosecutor general.
However, the record of the legislative committee, which gives final approval of appointment to the two positions, is not available with the assemblys secretariat.
DG, prosecutor general not recommended by assemblys legislative committee
Only the documents related to meetings of the search committee, which had recommended and selected DG retired Lt-Gen Hamid Khan and prosecutor general Yahya Zahid Gillani are available.
Retired Lt-Gen Hamid had resigned last February against the promulgation of an ordinance by the government, which drastically amended the Ehtesab Act of 2015.
Mr. Gillani is still holding his position.
Something is fishy. The assembly secretariat doesnt have minutes of the meeting of the legislative committee, one source said.
The assembly speaker is the chairman of the committee, which recommends names for these positions.
The secretariat has no knowledge that how and who has recommended names of these two persons, the source said, adding that only a copy of the advertisement about the two positions was available with the relevant section of the assembly secretariat.
Sources insisted the record of the appointment of chief commissioner and commissioners of the Ehtesab Commission existed.
They said proper legal procedure was adopted in the selection and appointments of chief commissioner and commissioners.
The procedure for the selection of chief commissioner, commissioners, director general and prosecutor general is the same under the act. Officials said that the search and scrutiny committee would send names of the candidates to the legislative committee for final selection.
Since the setting up of the commission under the Ehtesab Commission Act, it continued to face controversies one after another.
Initially, the lawmakers failed to mention the date from which the commission was empowered to start accountability. However, an amendment was later made to the law making it applicable since 2004.
Afterwards, it transpired that the applicability of the Code of Criminal Procedure had not been included in the law that resulted in the release of several suspects on bail.
Interestingly, it surfaced almost a year after the KPEC became functional that the government had not issued a notification for its establishment though it was required under the law.
The required notification was issued in Sept last year.
Law secretary Mohammad Arifeen was not available for comments.
Published in Dawn September 7th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1282607/top-kpec-appointments-arouse-controversy
PHC gets upset when .....
CM gets contempt notice in botanical garden land case
PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Tuesday issued the contempt of court notices to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and two others over the possession of a vast piece of land of the University of Peshawars botanical garden in Azakhel area by the Nowshera district administration in violation of the courts order.
Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim issued the order on a contempt of court petition filed by the University of Peshawars syndicate against the Nowshera district governments act of cancelation of lease of the land given for the Botanical Garden and Centre of Bio-Diversity and taking of the possession of that land early this year.
The next date of hearing into the petition will be fixed later.
Apart from Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, the two other respondents in the case are Nowshera district nazim and CMs brother Liaquat Khattak and deputy commissioner Iftikhar Alam.
Mian Muhibullah Kakakhel and Saifullah Muhib, lawyers for the petitioner, said On Feb 24, 2014, the chief minister had ordered the handing over of around 500 kanals of the botanical gardens land for the setting up of two other universities, Air University and Technical University.
They added that on June 9, 2014, the high court had declared the said CM order illegal and that the government had challenged the verdict in the Supreme Court but later withdrew the petition.
The lawyers pointed out that despite losing the said case, the district nazim had issued an order on Feb 3 to cancel the lease of the land measuring 567 kanals and that the administration CM gets contempt notice in botanical garden land case had directed the UoP to hand it over to the government.
They added that while the high court issued directives to the respondents to maintain status quo on the issue, they took possession of the said land and locked the main entrance to the botanical garden.
Mr. Muhibuillah pointed out that there were various under-research unique species of fish and plants in the botanical garden, which needed great care on day-to-day basis and if they were not taken care of properly, the same would lose its worth.
The petitioner claimed that in Dec 2003, the UoP syndicate had approved the establishment of Centre of Plant Biodiversity, which included setting up of a Botanical Garden in Azakhel, Nowshera.
He said the Higher Education Commission in order to support the university in its efforts to establish the centre had sanctioned a grant of Rs37.861 million.
The petitioner said the Nowshera district government had leased out land measuring 689 kanals to the university to establish the centre through a lease deed issued on Dec 16, 2005 for a period of 99 years.
He said the Nowshera district government had issued a notice to the university in Dec 2015 showing its intention to cancel the lease and that after the university submitted a reply to the said notice, the district government issued the impugned order on Feb 3 canceling the lease of 567 of the total 689 kanals of land.
Published in Dawn September 7th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1282606/cm-gets-contempt-notice-in-botanical-garden-land-case
Commission starts monitoring of healthcare centres
PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Healthcare Commission (KPHC) has taken action against 500 outlets for indulging in illegal medical practices and efforts are underway to streamline the health delivery system and provide quality services to the patients.
KPHC board of governors chairman Dr Mohammad Zaffar said this at a workshop here on Tuesday. Senior consultants and medical experts and managers also spoke on the occasion.
Dr Zaffar, a former director-general health services, said that action against over 500 institutions and healthcare outlets, including diagnostic centres, had been taken. He said that most of these outlets operated illegally in rural areas and some in Peshawar city.
Official says action taken against 500 outlets for indulging in illegal practices
He said that the stakeholders from all medical sectors needed to help the commission in pointing out such illegally-run medical centres and unauthorised practitioners.
Dr Zaffar said that KPHC had also been evolving a plan for capacity building of medical practitioners, paramedics and nurses with the help of both public and private sectors.
He claimed that the commission was making efforts to ensure monitoring and evaluation of all healthcare delivery centres through independent monitors and auditors. He said that priority was being given to frame a system to discourage sale of medicines without prescription.
This will only be possible with maximum coordination of legal, authorised and qualified medical practitioners with the commission, he remarked. He said that the commission had initiated work, which also included taking action against all unauthorised medical practitioners and diagnostic centres.
HCCs chief executive officer Asif Naveed said that the stakeholders should help them in pinpointing of the gray and black areas as well as support them in evolving a strategy for resolving all such problems. He said that a strategy was being devised for the promotion of notified pricing list in all medical and diagnostic centres.
Dr Sidra Jabbar said that health delivery system could be streamlined with merit-based appointments and postings and utilisation of funds and resources according to the needs.
Published in Dawn September 7th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1282595/commission-starts-monitoring-of-healthcare-centres
Peshawar water sample tests negative for poliovirus
PESHAWAR: The environmental water sample for poliovirus in Peshawar has tested negative after remaining positive in July due to the quality campaign in the provincial capital, which is one of the three core polio reservoirs along with Quetta and Karachi, according to officials.
It is a big success because the months of August and September are the most dangerous during which polio virus remains most active and chances of more cases loom large during this period, they said, adding that it was the most positive sign that they were able to eliminate poliovirus from Peshawar.
It shows that the province, which has recorded seven of the total 14 nationwide cases in 2016, is on its way to become polio-free by December this year. The province is bound to stop circulation of poliovirus by end of the year in consonance with the New Emergency Action Plan approved by the prime minister on July 9.
The plan seeks to eradicate poliomyelitis by end of the 2017 from the country.
The water sample from Shaheen Muslim Town was tested negative twice in the months of May and June, but it tested positive in July which upset the health department. An inquiry was conducted to know about the causes of the presence of the virus in the water.
KP is expected to become polio-free by December this year
The inquiry found that there was no major issue with vaccination campaigns. It recommended that some minor issues like monitoring of vaccinators should be strengthened.
Officials said that other gaps and weaknesses found by the inquiry were also plugged to get the desired results. The World Health Organisation has appreciated the health department for eliminating virus from the city which had been posing threats to polio eradication efforts for the past few years.
Since the positivity of sample in July, we conducted high quality campaigns due to which the sample emerged negative again, said officials. They added that they kept close watch on the vaccination efforts to put brakes on the re-entry of poliovirus by administering oral polio vaccines to all those coming there from Fata as well as Afghanistan.
The WHO has been collecting environmental samples from from sewerage sites in Shaheen Muslim Town, Larama and Dhando Pul areas to see presence of poliovirus on monthly basis.
The sample from Shaheen Muslim Town tested negative in May and June after staying positive since November 2015.
Not only Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but Fata has also recorded huge success in eradication of poliovirus as only two cases have been recorded in 2016 where polio count remained 16 in 2015 and 179 in 2014.
Both the cases detected in 2016 belonged to South Waziristan Agency and the victims had crossed over to Afghanistan when military action was started there.
Improvement in Fata and KP are good signs for polio eradication campaign in the country as both remained stumbling block in the way of doing with vaccine-preventable childhood ailment, said sources.
Published in Dawn September 7th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1282592/peshawar-water-sample-tests-negative-for-poliovirus
