Syed Haider Imam
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
june 20 2016
KPK Updates
- Thread starter Syed Haider Imam
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Syed Haider Imam
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
June 21 2016
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Syed Haider Imam
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
[h=1]Revenue, foreign aid targets missed
[/h] PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments revised budgetary estimates for the outgoing year show that the government has not only failed to get its due share from the federal government but also failed to achieve its own tax and non-tax revenue targets and to fully receive foreign aid.
According to an analysis of the non-governmental Centre for Governance and Public Accountability, the PTI-led government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa estimated a sum of Rs371.3 billion to be received as federal transfers in 2015-16.
The amount is 76 per cent of the total budget of Rs487.9 billion for the year 2015-16. These transfers included federal tax assignment, one per cent divisible pool for war on terror, straight transfers, net profit from hydel power generation, and arrears on net hydel profit.
The analysis showed that that provincial own revenues receipts for the year 2015-16 were estimated at Rs54.4 billion or about 11.15 per cent of the total budget estimates.
This included provincial tax receipts of Rs22.6 billion and provincial non-tax receipts of Rs31.8 billion, while capital receipts were estimated at Rs15.25 billion which is 3.1 per cent of the total budget and included recoveries of loans and advances and recoveries of investment of hydel development fund.
The development receipts were estimated at Rs46.9 billion which is 9.6 per cent of the total budget and included foreign project assistance of Rs32.9 billion.
In his budget speech, the finance minister also presented revised estimates for outgoing year.
The revised budget estimates for the year 2015-16 shows that the revenue receipts were revised downward from Rs487.9 billion to Rs431 billion.
While the provincial government did not revise downward the federal tax assignment receipts, it heavily revised transfer of net profit from hydel power generation and arrears of net hydel profit.
Receipts of net profit from hydel power generation is now revised to Rs9 billion from Rs17 billion, while the receipts from arrears of net hydel profit is revised to Rs25 billion from Rs51.9 billion.
Similarly, the KP government also failed to achieve revenue targets in case of its provincial own revenue receipts.
The provincial own tax revenue receipts which were estimated at Rs22.6 billion is revised downward to Rs14.3 billion.
The provincial own non-tax revenue is now revised downward from an estimate of Rs31.8 billion to Rs11.2 billion.
The foreign project assistance which was estimated at Rs32.8 billion has been reduced to 16.8 billion, by almost by 50 per cent.
This shows that government failed to get its due share from the federal government, failed to achieve its own tax and non-tax revenue collection targets and failed to receive the foreign project assistance. All this resulted in putting a huge cut amounting to Rs40 billion on the development spending in the province which is in dire need of social and infrastructure sector improvement, it said.
CGPA programme manager Malik Masood said the provincial government needed to concentrate on achievement of its own tax and non-tax revenue targets in the coming fiscal year.
He said the governments inability to receive the KPs net and arrears of net hydel profits from the federal government was a cause of serious concern despite so much negotiation with the federal government.
The CGPA manager said the provincial government needs to actively engage with bilateral and multilateral donors to realise the promised foreign project assistance for the development of the province.
The biggest responsibility of the provincial government is to increase own tax and non-tax revenue receipts to create fiscal space for more development, he said.
When contacted, finance minister Muzafar Said insisted that the downward revisions of estimates occurred due to the overvaluation of revenues in the budget-making process.
He said the outgoing years budgetary estimates were not realistic and the government organisations were also not competent enough to generate funds to meet the target.
He said the government had worked out the recently unveiled budget in light of the experience and were hopeful of meeting the targets next year.
Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1266237/revenue-foreign-aid-targets-missed
[h=1]KP govt to expand micro-hydel power stations programme
[/h]
PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to increase the number of micro-hydel power stations in the province from the current 53 to 1,000 in the next few years and hinted at extending the programme to central parts of the province.
The energy and power department has been setting up 356 small MHPs in 12 hilly districts of the province through NGOs since the PTI government took over in the province.
Energy and power minister Mohammad Atif Khan and Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation chief executive officer Akbar Ayub told reporters at a local hotel that the government had decided to increase the number of MHPs to 1,000.
The Pedo chief said his organisation had also planned to extend the MHP programme to central parts of the province, including Mardan, Charsadda, Swabi and Nowshera, where small power stations would be built on canals.
[h=4]Pedo chief says Asian Development Bank supporting initiative[/h]
He said the Asian Development Bank was extending support to the government in that respect and that it would fund the establishment of MHPs.
Mr. Ayub said the construction of 350 MHPs was to benefit over 350,000 people, while 1,000 MHPs would provide cheap power to around one million households.
He said currently, the Pedo had planned 29 hydel power projects under short, medium and long term framework at the estimated cost of $12 billion.
The Pedo chief said three short-term projects with installed capacity of 124 megawatts were to cost around $124 million.
He said in the medium term, five projects with installed capacity of 214 megawatts were to cost $678 million, while 21 long term projects with installed capacity of 3631 was to cost $11, 150.
Mr. Ayub said the government had prepared feasibility studies of at least 18 projects and government has planned to execute these projects with the help of private sector.
He said currently, the government had offered six projects with installed capacity of 666 megawatts to private sector and have received overwhelming response from international as well as local investors.
Weve received 56 proposals for pre-qualification from international as well local firms to invest in these seven projects, he said.
The Pedo chief said the organisation was not only working on hydel power but was also working on solar, thermal and wind as well.
He said the department could also venture in transmission and dispatch sector.
Mr. Ayub said the ADB had agreed to fund 300 megawatts Balakot hydel power station at the estimated cost of $600-$700 million.
He said it would be for the first time that ADB will do such a huge investment in the province.
The Pedo chief said the department would also work on 100 megawatts of solar power projects and issued two letters of interest of 50MW each.
He said of 356 MHPs, feasibilities of 284 were ready, while 188 were under construction and 53 have been completed and operational, while five have been inaugurated so far.
Mr. Ayub said 356 MHPs would generate around 35MW power and provide cheap electricity to over 350,000 households in 12 districts.
On the occasion, energy and power minister Mohammad Atif Khan said the previous government had begun work on 57MW projects in five years but the current government had launched work on 214MW projects.
He said $2 billion investment would be made in the power sector, the largest in the provinces history.
Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2016
[h=1]CM turns to huge billboards to project govts performance
[/h] PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has directed all departments to use huge billboards to highlight the initiatives and projects of the government.
Interestingly, earlier chief minister himself had banned large size hoardings on both sides of GT Road. Previously, both sides of the road were dotted by large number of huge hoardings.
A directive issued by the Chief Minister Secretariat, a copy of which is available with Dawn, tells the officials that chief minister wants all the departments to use, in addition to other modes, huge hoardings in vintage points and on roadsides to enhance visibility of the government projects and initiatives.
The directive notes that the practice would have greater impact for a prolonged period with comparatively less cost than using other medium. It says that large billboards shall be used for promotional messages and public awareness regarding governments initiatives and projects and to highlight their impact.
The letter says that strategic locations, particularly main entry points to the province, districts and other important squares, should be selected to be used permanently for this purpose.
It says that messages should be displayed on these hoardings for one month period to get the desired impact. Public communication strategy for every government initiative and project should be part of the planning process.
The chief minister has directed the government departments that social media should also be used as an additional option for advertisements to have access to a large number of audiences.
A senior government official criticised the move and termed it dangerous. Given the number of the windstorms lashing the city these days, installation of huge billboards is fraught with dangers for public safety and should be avoided, he said.
An official of Peshawar Development Authority (PDA), requesting anonymity, told Dawn that earlier the chief minister had directed to remove all billboards along the GT Road.
He said that the chief ministers contention then was that not only those billboards distracted motorists attention but also there was a danger of their collapse in case of windstorms.
However, the official admitted that there were no bylaws to regulate the hoardings business in the city. He said that PDA entered into agreements with contractors about renting hoardings; however, even those agreements didnt mention in which area the boards would installed.
The official said that there were certain places in the city where installation of a large billboard was not allowed. However, he said that authorities had lately allowed installation of commercial hoardings on one side of pedestrian flyover on University Road.
The official said that hoardings on its other side were not allowed.
He said that so far installation of hoardings was not allowed on GT Road and rooftops of buildings and whenever they received information, they took action against the violators of the ban.
The official said that they received the chief ministers directives and were framing policy in that regard.
Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1266024/cm-turns-to-huge-billboards-to-project-govts-performance
[h=1]ATH doctors protest against biometric attendance today
[/h] ABBOTTABAD: The doctors community has announced to boycott their duty on Monday (today) in Ayub Teaching Hospital (ATH) in protest against the biometric attendance system and explanation notices issued to medical officers by the hospital administration for not availing of the system.
Except emergency cover, all outdoor departments, wards, laboratory, radiology department and operation theatres will remain closed during the day, said Provincial Doctors Association (PDA), Ayub Medical Institute Abbottabad, in a circular issued by its president Dr Aminullah Afridi after its meeting.
The circular, which was also conveyed to the hospital administration, stated that OPDs and other services would not been provided during the strike.
In case the notification of biometric system for attendance and explanation letters are not withdrawn, the strike will be extended for an indefinite period, the circular stated, adding that issues were discussed with the BoG chairman, but their demands were not fulfilled.
The sudden strike call was given after the issuance of notification about biometric attendance by the hospital administration followed by issuance of explanation notices to over 150 doctors in this regard who did not use the biometric devices for their attendance.
Dr Aminullah Afridi told mediapersons that the BoG chairman had earlier assured them that till fulfillment of demands of doctors the biometric system would not be implemented. He said that their demands included provision of health professional allowance, increase in salaries and stipends, etc.
MARRIAGE ROW: An 8th class student of about 14 years was forcefully got married after her abduction, alleges her family as their daughter went missing a month ago. The FIR about her abduction was lodged in Nawan Shehr police station.
Adeel, brother of the girl, lodged the FIR, claiming that two persons had sought the hand of his sister, but the family had refused to allow her marriage. The girl appeared in court a few days ago and in her statement before a magistrate she said that she had willingly married with Mazhar and no one had abducted her.
The girls family produced her birth and school certificates to the police where the girls age was mentioned as 14 years, while the medical certificate produced in the court showed her age as 18 years. The court after recording statement of the girl and checking the medical certificate allowed her to proceed with her husband. The girls family has sought the help of the chief justice and government in the case, saying that she is frightened and not talking to them.
Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1266018/ath-doctors-protest-against-biometric-attendance-today
[/h] PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments revised budgetary estimates for the outgoing year show that the government has not only failed to get its due share from the federal government but also failed to achieve its own tax and non-tax revenue targets and to fully receive foreign aid.
According to an analysis of the non-governmental Centre for Governance and Public Accountability, the PTI-led government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa estimated a sum of Rs371.3 billion to be received as federal transfers in 2015-16.
The amount is 76 per cent of the total budget of Rs487.9 billion for the year 2015-16. These transfers included federal tax assignment, one per cent divisible pool for war on terror, straight transfers, net profit from hydel power generation, and arrears on net hydel profit.
The analysis showed that that provincial own revenues receipts for the year 2015-16 were estimated at Rs54.4 billion or about 11.15 per cent of the total budget estimates.
This included provincial tax receipts of Rs22.6 billion and provincial non-tax receipts of Rs31.8 billion, while capital receipts were estimated at Rs15.25 billion which is 3.1 per cent of the total budget and included recoveries of loans and advances and recoveries of investment of hydel development fund.
The development receipts were estimated at Rs46.9 billion which is 9.6 per cent of the total budget and included foreign project assistance of Rs32.9 billion.
In his budget speech, the finance minister also presented revised estimates for outgoing year.
The revised budget estimates for the year 2015-16 shows that the revenue receipts were revised downward from Rs487.9 billion to Rs431 billion.
While the provincial government did not revise downward the federal tax assignment receipts, it heavily revised transfer of net profit from hydel power generation and arrears of net hydel profit.
Receipts of net profit from hydel power generation is now revised to Rs9 billion from Rs17 billion, while the receipts from arrears of net hydel profit is revised to Rs25 billion from Rs51.9 billion.
Similarly, the KP government also failed to achieve revenue targets in case of its provincial own revenue receipts.
The provincial own tax revenue receipts which were estimated at Rs22.6 billion is revised downward to Rs14.3 billion.
The provincial own non-tax revenue is now revised downward from an estimate of Rs31.8 billion to Rs11.2 billion.
The foreign project assistance which was estimated at Rs32.8 billion has been reduced to 16.8 billion, by almost by 50 per cent.
This shows that government failed to get its due share from the federal government, failed to achieve its own tax and non-tax revenue collection targets and failed to receive the foreign project assistance. All this resulted in putting a huge cut amounting to Rs40 billion on the development spending in the province which is in dire need of social and infrastructure sector improvement, it said.
CGPA programme manager Malik Masood said the provincial government needed to concentrate on achievement of its own tax and non-tax revenue targets in the coming fiscal year.
He said the governments inability to receive the KPs net and arrears of net hydel profits from the federal government was a cause of serious concern despite so much negotiation with the federal government.
The CGPA manager said the provincial government needs to actively engage with bilateral and multilateral donors to realise the promised foreign project assistance for the development of the province.
The biggest responsibility of the provincial government is to increase own tax and non-tax revenue receipts to create fiscal space for more development, he said.
When contacted, finance minister Muzafar Said insisted that the downward revisions of estimates occurred due to the overvaluation of revenues in the budget-making process.
He said the outgoing years budgetary estimates were not realistic and the government organisations were also not competent enough to generate funds to meet the target.
He said the government had worked out the recently unveiled budget in light of the experience and were hopeful of meeting the targets next year.
Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1266237/revenue-foreign-aid-targets-missed
[h=1]KP govt to expand micro-hydel power stations programme
[/h]
PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to increase the number of micro-hydel power stations in the province from the current 53 to 1,000 in the next few years and hinted at extending the programme to central parts of the province.
The energy and power department has been setting up 356 small MHPs in 12 hilly districts of the province through NGOs since the PTI government took over in the province.
Energy and power minister Mohammad Atif Khan and Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation chief executive officer Akbar Ayub told reporters at a local hotel that the government had decided to increase the number of MHPs to 1,000.
The Pedo chief said his organisation had also planned to extend the MHP programme to central parts of the province, including Mardan, Charsadda, Swabi and Nowshera, where small power stations would be built on canals.
[h=4]Pedo chief says Asian Development Bank supporting initiative[/h]
He said the Asian Development Bank was extending support to the government in that respect and that it would fund the establishment of MHPs.
Mr. Ayub said the construction of 350 MHPs was to benefit over 350,000 people, while 1,000 MHPs would provide cheap power to around one million households.
He said currently, the Pedo had planned 29 hydel power projects under short, medium and long term framework at the estimated cost of $12 billion.
The Pedo chief said three short-term projects with installed capacity of 124 megawatts were to cost around $124 million.
He said in the medium term, five projects with installed capacity of 214 megawatts were to cost $678 million, while 21 long term projects with installed capacity of 3631 was to cost $11, 150.
Mr. Ayub said the government had prepared feasibility studies of at least 18 projects and government has planned to execute these projects with the help of private sector.
He said currently, the government had offered six projects with installed capacity of 666 megawatts to private sector and have received overwhelming response from international as well as local investors.
Weve received 56 proposals for pre-qualification from international as well local firms to invest in these seven projects, he said.
The Pedo chief said the organisation was not only working on hydel power but was also working on solar, thermal and wind as well.
He said the department could also venture in transmission and dispatch sector.
Mr. Ayub said the ADB had agreed to fund 300 megawatts Balakot hydel power station at the estimated cost of $600-$700 million.
He said it would be for the first time that ADB will do such a huge investment in the province.
The Pedo chief said the department would also work on 100 megawatts of solar power projects and issued two letters of interest of 50MW each.
He said of 356 MHPs, feasibilities of 284 were ready, while 188 were under construction and 53 have been completed and operational, while five have been inaugurated so far.
Mr. Ayub said 356 MHPs would generate around 35MW power and provide cheap electricity to over 350,000 households in 12 districts.
On the occasion, energy and power minister Mohammad Atif Khan said the previous government had begun work on 57MW projects in five years but the current government had launched work on 214MW projects.
He said $2 billion investment would be made in the power sector, the largest in the provinces history.
Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2016
[h=1]CM turns to huge billboards to project govts performance
[/h] PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has directed all departments to use huge billboards to highlight the initiatives and projects of the government.
Interestingly, earlier chief minister himself had banned large size hoardings on both sides of GT Road. Previously, both sides of the road were dotted by large number of huge hoardings.
A directive issued by the Chief Minister Secretariat, a copy of which is available with Dawn, tells the officials that chief minister wants all the departments to use, in addition to other modes, huge hoardings in vintage points and on roadsides to enhance visibility of the government projects and initiatives.
The directive notes that the practice would have greater impact for a prolonged period with comparatively less cost than using other medium. It says that large billboards shall be used for promotional messages and public awareness regarding governments initiatives and projects and to highlight their impact.
The letter says that strategic locations, particularly main entry points to the province, districts and other important squares, should be selected to be used permanently for this purpose.
It says that messages should be displayed on these hoardings for one month period to get the desired impact. Public communication strategy for every government initiative and project should be part of the planning process.
The chief minister has directed the government departments that social media should also be used as an additional option for advertisements to have access to a large number of audiences.
A senior government official criticised the move and termed it dangerous. Given the number of the windstorms lashing the city these days, installation of huge billboards is fraught with dangers for public safety and should be avoided, he said.
An official of Peshawar Development Authority (PDA), requesting anonymity, told Dawn that earlier the chief minister had directed to remove all billboards along the GT Road.
He said that the chief ministers contention then was that not only those billboards distracted motorists attention but also there was a danger of their collapse in case of windstorms.
However, the official admitted that there were no bylaws to regulate the hoardings business in the city. He said that PDA entered into agreements with contractors about renting hoardings; however, even those agreements didnt mention in which area the boards would installed.
The official said that there were certain places in the city where installation of a large billboard was not allowed. However, he said that authorities had lately allowed installation of commercial hoardings on one side of pedestrian flyover on University Road.
The official said that hoardings on its other side were not allowed.
He said that so far installation of hoardings was not allowed on GT Road and rooftops of buildings and whenever they received information, they took action against the violators of the ban.
The official said that they received the chief ministers directives and were framing policy in that regard.
Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1266024/cm-turns-to-huge-billboards-to-project-govts-performance
[h=1]ATH doctors protest against biometric attendance today
[/h] ABBOTTABAD: The doctors community has announced to boycott their duty on Monday (today) in Ayub Teaching Hospital (ATH) in protest against the biometric attendance system and explanation notices issued to medical officers by the hospital administration for not availing of the system.
Except emergency cover, all outdoor departments, wards, laboratory, radiology department and operation theatres will remain closed during the day, said Provincial Doctors Association (PDA), Ayub Medical Institute Abbottabad, in a circular issued by its president Dr Aminullah Afridi after its meeting.
The circular, which was also conveyed to the hospital administration, stated that OPDs and other services would not been provided during the strike.
In case the notification of biometric system for attendance and explanation letters are not withdrawn, the strike will be extended for an indefinite period, the circular stated, adding that issues were discussed with the BoG chairman, but their demands were not fulfilled.
The sudden strike call was given after the issuance of notification about biometric attendance by the hospital administration followed by issuance of explanation notices to over 150 doctors in this regard who did not use the biometric devices for their attendance.
Dr Aminullah Afridi told mediapersons that the BoG chairman had earlier assured them that till fulfillment of demands of doctors the biometric system would not be implemented. He said that their demands included provision of health professional allowance, increase in salaries and stipends, etc.
MARRIAGE ROW: An 8th class student of about 14 years was forcefully got married after her abduction, alleges her family as their daughter went missing a month ago. The FIR about her abduction was lodged in Nawan Shehr police station.
Adeel, brother of the girl, lodged the FIR, claiming that two persons had sought the hand of his sister, but the family had refused to allow her marriage. The girl appeared in court a few days ago and in her statement before a magistrate she said that she had willingly married with Mazhar and no one had abducted her.
The girls family produced her birth and school certificates to the police where the girls age was mentioned as 14 years, while the medical certificate produced in the court showed her age as 18 years. The court after recording statement of the girl and checking the medical certificate allowed her to proceed with her husband. The girls family has sought the help of the chief justice and government in the case, saying that she is frightened and not talking to them.
Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1266018/ath-doctors-protest-against-biometric-attendance-today
Syed Haider Imam
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
[h=1]PHC moved for autonomy of local councils
[/h] PESHAWAR: Three district nazims and Local Council Association, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, on Saturday approached Peshawar High Court, seeking financial and administrative autonomy for the local councils as well as providing representation to the district councilors in Public Safety and Police Complaint Commissions (PSPCC).
The petitioners include president of Local Council Association Shah-i-Dawran, and district nazims of Shangla, Bannu and Mansehra namely Niaz Muqam, Irfan Durrani and Sardar Said Ghulam, respectively,
The respondents in these petitions are: Province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa through chief secretary, provincial home department through home secretary and ministry of local government through its secretary.
While filing the petition the petitioners were also accompanied by PML-N leader Danyal Aziz. The petitions are filed through senior advocate Farhat Nawaz Lodhi.
In one of the petitions the petitioners have requested the court to issue directives to the provincial government for giving complete financial and administrative autonomy of local councils.
They stated that under the KP Local Government Ordinance, 2000 representation was given to nazims of union councils in Provincial Finance Commission but under the Local Government Act, 2013, no representation had been given to the nazims of village councils.
The petitioners contended that the salary fixed for nazims and naib nazims of village councils was even less than the minimum wage fixed by the provincial government for unskilled workers.
The petitioners contended that under the law administrative and other powers were assigned to the nazims and naib nazims of local councils through the rules subsequently framed by the government but those powers were diluted and mostly assigned to administrative officers.
In the other petition, they stated that on Feb 12, 2013, the Supreme Court of Pakistan had disposed of a leave to appeal petition of Local Council Association regarding non-representation of the councilors in the District Public Safety and Police Complaint Commission.
Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2016
[h=1]Delay in construction of Kohat colleges resented
[/h]KOHAT: Former district president of Awami National Party Javed Khattak has expressed resentment over non-completion of projects to construct two colleges and a school that were started here during their party’s government in the province.
In a statement issued here on Saturday, he said that two girls colleges and a higher secondary school were approved by then MPA Qalbe Hassan during the previous government of ANP, but despite passage of over three years the projects had not been completed.
He said that the matric and intermediate pass students of Lachi and Ustarzai had to travel to Kohat city for studies.
He said that the two colleges and a higher secondary school were sanctioned in Lachi and Ustarzai, but due to lethargy of communication and works department work had been delayed on the projects.
He urged the chief minister to launch an inquiry into the matter and release funds if required for completion of the projects. Javed Khattak also claimed that the district education officer (male) had purchased furniture of over Rs90 million for staffrooms whereas there was no place to accommodate it.
He alleged that it had been bought to make commission.
He said that work on Mithakhel high school had been completed, but it was lying vacant like a ghost building.
MANSEHRA: A Spanish company has offered to produce 50MW of solar electricity on cheap rates provided the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government rented the firm a 2,000 kanal of land to set up the required infrastructure.
The officials of Transworld solar company of Spain visited Mansehra and Peshawar, where during their meetings with the government functionaries they expressed willingness to install a solar plant to supply cheap electricity to parts of Hazara division.
Ambreen Swati, the district president of PTI’s women wing, who is a focal person for KP government, told reporters here that director Antonio Garcia and chief engineer Gonzalez Carlos of Spanish company had recently visited here and demanded 2,000 kanals of barren land to set up the plant.
She said the provincial government had been seriously considering the project as it would help address issue of loadshedding in Mansehra, Abbottabad and Haripur.
Ms Ambreen said the Spanish company delegation had also met Akbar Ayub, the chairman of Pakhtunkhwa Electricity Development Organisation and Naeem Khan, secretary energy KP, where both officials appreciated the offer extended by the Spanish firm to produce 50MW electricity on cheaper rates.
“We have been searching for a 2,000 kanals of barren land anywhere in Mansehra, Abbottabad and Haripur, and once the land is found then modalities on the project would be finalised between KP and the foreign company,” she said.
Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1265790/spanish-firm-offers-to-generate-50mw-solar-power
[h=1]KP receives 56 proposals for six hydropower projects
[/h] PESHAWAR: The Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation (Pedo) has received 56 proposals for pre-qualification stage for six sites to launch hydropower projects in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
According to Pedo chief executive Akbar Ayub, the organisation had advertised six solicited (feasibilities completed) sites and one semi-raw site (feasibility not done) for both the local and international private sector investment.
The projects include Naran (Mansehra 188 megawatt), Ghorband (Shangla 21MW), Nandihar (Battagram 12MW), Arkari Gol (Chitral 99MW), Shigo Kas (Lower Dir 102MW) and Batakundi (Mansehra 96MW) with an overall investment amount of $1.5 billion.
Sharing details with this correspondent, the Pedo chief said that there had been an overwhelming response from the private sector, which submitted 56 proposals showing their confidence in the policies of the government and management of Pedo.
[h=4]Pedo chief says KP has potential for producing 30,000MW hydropower[/h]
He said that Pedo was spearheading the power sector initiative of the province which had a huge hydropower potential of around 30,000MW or approximately 70 per cent of national untapped hydropower potential.
The organisation, he claimed, was working on harnessing this resource for the benefit of the province and country at large. “It has already identified a total of 29 hydropower projects with an investment of around $12 billion,” he said.
Mr Ayub said that Pedo had embarked on a multi-pronged strategy to implement these projects on fast track basis. It is developing these projects both in the public and private sectors.
Work in the public sector is already underway with eight projects of total 270MW at different stages of implementation whereas the private sector initiative has also been launched.
He said that a new investor-friendly KP Hydropower Policy 2016 and associated guidelines had been put in place to attract investment in the sector.
The semi-raw site Sharmai (Dir 150MW) entailed an approximate project cost of $0.5 billion. In total, all the seven projects offered to private sector add up to a capacity of 668MW and an investment of $2.0 billion.
“This is the first time the KP government has taken such a bold initiative to attract private sector investment to the war-torn province,” he said.
Proposals for pre-qualification stage for six solicited sites had been received by Pedo. Once the investment is materialised this will be the biggest in any sector in KP.
“Pedo intends to offer more projects to private sector in the coming months so that maximum number of power projects is initiated to rid the province and country of loadshedding as soon as possible,” he said.
Mr Ayub said that Pedo had also launched a micro-hydel initiative through which it would provide access to energy to rural population of the province.
Through this project, it will construct 356 micro-hydel stations in northern districts of KP. These are community-based projects and will be handed over to community organisations (CBOs) for operations and maintenance.
These projects will provide cheap and clean source of electricity to almost 350,000 people. He said that currently the government / Pedo was enhancing this to 1,000 projects.
The Pedo chief said that ADB had also joined hands with his organisation and was providing technical assistance and funding to various projects.
Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1265425/kp-receives-56-proposals-for-six-hydropower-projects
[h=1]Kohat hospitals face shortage of doctors
[/h] KOHAT: Local political and social activists have urged the MPAs, provincial law minister and MNA from Kohat to use their good offices with the provincial government to fill the vacant posts of doctors in the KDA teaching hospital and women and children hospital.
Former MNA Javed Ibrahim Paracha, Tajir action committee president Abid Paracha and Kohat Chamber of Commerce and Industry senior vice-president Rasheed Paracha have said that Kohat lacked basic necessities of health and education though it was the headquarters of the southern region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Most of the doctors working in these hospitals joined the medical college after its start in 2011. In principle, wherever a medical college is established the government appoints new staff for it, but in case of Kohat doctors and technicians left the local hospital and joined the college.
A doctor told this correspondent on condition of anonymity that there was acute shortage of doctors in the women and children hospital located in the centre of city.
He said that instead of appointing permanent doctors the government had adopted the policy of appointing untrained doctors on fixed salary of Rs30,000. He said that precious lives had been put at risk because the untrained doctors mostly spoiled the cases and gave wrong medicines to patients.
An office-bearer of paramedics association said that the vacant posts were not being filled because under the rules it could only be done through promotions or with the appointment of FCPS doctors. Dozens of doctors and other staff have also left the KDA hospital and joined the medical college, he said.
Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1265422/kohat-hospitals-face-shortage-of-doctors
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[/h] PESHAWAR: Three district nazims and Local Council Association, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, on Saturday approached Peshawar High Court, seeking financial and administrative autonomy for the local councils as well as providing representation to the district councilors in Public Safety and Police Complaint Commissions (PSPCC).
The petitioners include president of Local Council Association Shah-i-Dawran, and district nazims of Shangla, Bannu and Mansehra namely Niaz Muqam, Irfan Durrani and Sardar Said Ghulam, respectively,
The respondents in these petitions are: Province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa through chief secretary, provincial home department through home secretary and ministry of local government through its secretary.
While filing the petition the petitioners were also accompanied by PML-N leader Danyal Aziz. The petitions are filed through senior advocate Farhat Nawaz Lodhi.
In one of the petitions the petitioners have requested the court to issue directives to the provincial government for giving complete financial and administrative autonomy of local councils.
They stated that under the KP Local Government Ordinance, 2000 representation was given to nazims of union councils in Provincial Finance Commission but under the Local Government Act, 2013, no representation had been given to the nazims of village councils.
The petitioners contended that the salary fixed for nazims and naib nazims of village councils was even less than the minimum wage fixed by the provincial government for unskilled workers.
The petitioners contended that under the law administrative and other powers were assigned to the nazims and naib nazims of local councils through the rules subsequently framed by the government but those powers were diluted and mostly assigned to administrative officers.
In the other petition, they stated that on Feb 12, 2013, the Supreme Court of Pakistan had disposed of a leave to appeal petition of Local Council Association regarding non-representation of the councilors in the District Public Safety and Police Complaint Commission.
Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2016
[h=1]Delay in construction of Kohat colleges resented
[/h]KOHAT: Former district president of Awami National Party Javed Khattak has expressed resentment over non-completion of projects to construct two colleges and a school that were started here during their party’s government in the province.
In a statement issued here on Saturday, he said that two girls colleges and a higher secondary school were approved by then MPA Qalbe Hassan during the previous government of ANP, but despite passage of over three years the projects had not been completed.
He said that the matric and intermediate pass students of Lachi and Ustarzai had to travel to Kohat city for studies.
He said that the two colleges and a higher secondary school were sanctioned in Lachi and Ustarzai, but due to lethargy of communication and works department work had been delayed on the projects.
He urged the chief minister to launch an inquiry into the matter and release funds if required for completion of the projects. Javed Khattak also claimed that the district education officer (male) had purchased furniture of over Rs90 million for staffrooms whereas there was no place to accommodate it.
He alleged that it had been bought to make commission.
He said that work on Mithakhel high school had been completed, but it was lying vacant like a ghost building.
MANSEHRA: A Spanish company has offered to produce 50MW of solar electricity on cheap rates provided the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government rented the firm a 2,000 kanal of land to set up the required infrastructure.
The officials of Transworld solar company of Spain visited Mansehra and Peshawar, where during their meetings with the government functionaries they expressed willingness to install a solar plant to supply cheap electricity to parts of Hazara division.
Ambreen Swati, the district president of PTI’s women wing, who is a focal person for KP government, told reporters here that director Antonio Garcia and chief engineer Gonzalez Carlos of Spanish company had recently visited here and demanded 2,000 kanals of barren land to set up the plant.
She said the provincial government had been seriously considering the project as it would help address issue of loadshedding in Mansehra, Abbottabad and Haripur.
Ms Ambreen said the Spanish company delegation had also met Akbar Ayub, the chairman of Pakhtunkhwa Electricity Development Organisation and Naeem Khan, secretary energy KP, where both officials appreciated the offer extended by the Spanish firm to produce 50MW electricity on cheaper rates.
“We have been searching for a 2,000 kanals of barren land anywhere in Mansehra, Abbottabad and Haripur, and once the land is found then modalities on the project would be finalised between KP and the foreign company,” she said.
Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1265790/spanish-firm-offers-to-generate-50mw-solar-power
[h=1]KP receives 56 proposals for six hydropower projects
[/h] PESHAWAR: The Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation (Pedo) has received 56 proposals for pre-qualification stage for six sites to launch hydropower projects in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
According to Pedo chief executive Akbar Ayub, the organisation had advertised six solicited (feasibilities completed) sites and one semi-raw site (feasibility not done) for both the local and international private sector investment.
The projects include Naran (Mansehra 188 megawatt), Ghorband (Shangla 21MW), Nandihar (Battagram 12MW), Arkari Gol (Chitral 99MW), Shigo Kas (Lower Dir 102MW) and Batakundi (Mansehra 96MW) with an overall investment amount of $1.5 billion.
Sharing details with this correspondent, the Pedo chief said that there had been an overwhelming response from the private sector, which submitted 56 proposals showing their confidence in the policies of the government and management of Pedo.
[h=4]Pedo chief says KP has potential for producing 30,000MW hydropower[/h]
He said that Pedo was spearheading the power sector initiative of the province which had a huge hydropower potential of around 30,000MW or approximately 70 per cent of national untapped hydropower potential.
The organisation, he claimed, was working on harnessing this resource for the benefit of the province and country at large. “It has already identified a total of 29 hydropower projects with an investment of around $12 billion,” he said.
Mr Ayub said that Pedo had embarked on a multi-pronged strategy to implement these projects on fast track basis. It is developing these projects both in the public and private sectors.
Work in the public sector is already underway with eight projects of total 270MW at different stages of implementation whereas the private sector initiative has also been launched.
He said that a new investor-friendly KP Hydropower Policy 2016 and associated guidelines had been put in place to attract investment in the sector.
The semi-raw site Sharmai (Dir 150MW) entailed an approximate project cost of $0.5 billion. In total, all the seven projects offered to private sector add up to a capacity of 668MW and an investment of $2.0 billion.
“This is the first time the KP government has taken such a bold initiative to attract private sector investment to the war-torn province,” he said.
Proposals for pre-qualification stage for six solicited sites had been received by Pedo. Once the investment is materialised this will be the biggest in any sector in KP.
“Pedo intends to offer more projects to private sector in the coming months so that maximum number of power projects is initiated to rid the province and country of loadshedding as soon as possible,” he said.
Mr Ayub said that Pedo had also launched a micro-hydel initiative through which it would provide access to energy to rural population of the province.
Through this project, it will construct 356 micro-hydel stations in northern districts of KP. These are community-based projects and will be handed over to community organisations (CBOs) for operations and maintenance.
These projects will provide cheap and clean source of electricity to almost 350,000 people. He said that currently the government / Pedo was enhancing this to 1,000 projects.
The Pedo chief said that ADB had also joined hands with his organisation and was providing technical assistance and funding to various projects.
Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1265425/kp-receives-56-proposals-for-six-hydropower-projects
[h=1]Kohat hospitals face shortage of doctors
[/h] KOHAT: Local political and social activists have urged the MPAs, provincial law minister and MNA from Kohat to use their good offices with the provincial government to fill the vacant posts of doctors in the KDA teaching hospital and women and children hospital.
Former MNA Javed Ibrahim Paracha, Tajir action committee president Abid Paracha and Kohat Chamber of Commerce and Industry senior vice-president Rasheed Paracha have said that Kohat lacked basic necessities of health and education though it was the headquarters of the southern region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Most of the doctors working in these hospitals joined the medical college after its start in 2011. In principle, wherever a medical college is established the government appoints new staff for it, but in case of Kohat doctors and technicians left the local hospital and joined the college.
A doctor told this correspondent on condition of anonymity that there was acute shortage of doctors in the women and children hospital located in the centre of city.
He said that instead of appointing permanent doctors the government had adopted the policy of appointing untrained doctors on fixed salary of Rs30,000. He said that precious lives had been put at risk because the untrained doctors mostly spoiled the cases and gave wrong medicines to patients.
An office-bearer of paramedics association said that the vacant posts were not being filled because under the rules it could only be done through promotions or with the appointment of FCPS doctors. Dozens of doctors and other staff have also left the KDA hospital and joined the medical college, he said.
Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1265422/kohat-hospitals-face-shortage-of-doctors
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Syed Haider Imam
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
June 22, 2016
Syed Haider Imam
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
JUne 23 2016
Syed Haider Imam
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
June 24 2016
Syed Haider Imam
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
jUNE 25 2016
Syed Haider Imam
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
Opponents of Haqqania seminary trying to please US: Samiul Haq
NOWSHERA: Chief of his own faction of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-S) Maulana Samiul Haq has strongly criticised those opposing the approval of Rs300 million for Darul Uloom Haqqania and said that the views of Awami National Party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Pakistan People Party and America in this regard are similar.
“ANP Senator Zahid Khan and Federal Minister for Information Pervaiz Rashid are saying what America is saying about Darul Uloom Haqania and they all are trying to please the America and the West,” said the JUI-S chief while talking to mediapersons here at Akora Khattak on Friday after meeting a delegation of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf.
The PTI delegation included KP Minister for Public Health Engineering Shah Farman and Minister for Elementary and Secondary Education Mohammad Atif Khan, secretary education Qaisir Alam and others.
Senator Zahid had earlier expressed the ANP’s opposition to the allocation of Rs300 million in the provincial budget for Darul Uloom Haqqania situated in the hometown of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak.
Samiul Haq said that ANP had distributed Rs1.35 billion during its government among different religious seminaries and mosques mostly in Mardan. He said that the Europe and its media could not tolerate the great role of Darul Uloom Haqqania and always tried to spread rumours about it.
Regarding the allegation of its involvement in Benazir Bhutto murder case, he said that the religious institution had no link with terrorism and its activities were focused on education.
He said that former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani visited the institution last year and appreciated its role in spreading religious education. He said that former prime minister Benazir Bhutto had given special permission to spend the allocated fund of Senate on Darul Uloom Haqania and a big hall ‘Darul Hadith’ had been constructed with that amount. He said that the students of this institution were mostly heads of different Islamic universities.
Meanwhile, a handout issued in Peshawar said that provincial ministers Shah Farman and Atif Khan visited the seminary and met JUI-S chief Maulana Samiul Haq and other religious scholars.
It said that the ministers told the ulema that the PTI-led provincial government had taken steps to ensure proper teaching of religious as well as modern knowledge in madressahs.
It quoted them as saying that the Haqqania was the centre of religious education in Pakistan and the higher secondary school present in the seminary was established in 1936 and affiliated with the Board of Intermediate And Secondary Education, Mardan.
They said that this historic institution had produced renowned ulema, teachers and political leaders, including late ANP leader Ajmal Khattak. They said that the previous ANP government distributed Rs1.37 billion among religious semianries of Mardan, but Haqqania was ignored.
The ministers said that the higher secondary school of Darul Uloom Al-Quran Haqqania where 1,000 students were studying would be upgraded to degree level. They appreciated the role of administration of Darul Uloom Haqqania in eradication of polio in the province. They said that in this religious institution the students would be taught English, mathematics, science, computer science, etc.
The ministers said that the position-holder students of this institution would be provided scholarships while arrangements would be made to send its teachers to Jamia al-Azhar for training.
Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1267120/opponents-of-haqqania-seminary-trying-to-please-us-samiul-haq
KP lawmakers unite to demand threefold pay raise
PESHAWAR: Members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Friday unanimously passed a resolution to demand a 300 per cent increase in their salary to bring it on par with the Balochistan MPAs’.
The resolution was moved in the house by JUI-F member Maulana Asmatullah.
Reading out the resolution, he said, “This assembly demands from the provincial government to bring the salaries and other allowances of its members on par with those of the members of the Balochistan Assembly, which is the poorest province in the country.” The resolution was passed unanimously with a loud shout of ‘Yes’ when Speaker Asad Qaiser put it to vote.
Currently, each member of the KP Assembly draws around Rs92,000 salary every month, while the monthly salary of every Balochistan MPA is more than Rs400,000, a local lawmaker told Dawn.
“I am sure that the government will increase our salary threefold,” he said.
The lawmaker said the resolution regarding the MPAs’ salary was passed unanimously and the implementation of unanimously passed resolution was binding on the provincial government.
Pass resolution asking govt to bring their salary and allowances on par with Balochistan PA members’
Asked why the Balochistan Assembly was cited a reason for pay raise call, mover of the resolution Asmatullah said, “We have identical culture.” He however didn’t say that the salary of MPAs in Balochistan was every high.
Earlier, the house passed Rs26.4 billion supplementary budget.
Speaker Asad Qaisar also formed a special committee of the house to verify the claims of the government on drastic reforms in its departments.
The names of the committee members will be notified afterwards.
The special committee was formed on the suggestion of ANP parliamentary leader Sardar Hussain Babak and after the approval of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak.
The committee’s formation came after the opposition rejected the chief minister’s claim about drastic reforms in the government departments insisting no such thing is visible.
The chief minister said when the PTI had formed the provincial government, no provincial department was functioning properly and that the government employees were involved in corrupt practices.
He added that in the three years, his government had introduced many reforms in all departments and that everyone could see improvement there compared with their state of affairs during the previous government.
“Previously, the thana and patwari cultures were flourishing in the province but now, they’ve changed for the better considerably,” he said.
Sardar Babak suggested that a committee of parliamentary leaders be made to ascertain whether reforms have been introduced in government departments as claimed by the CM.
He said the provincial government had failed to secure the province’s several rights from the centre during the last three years to the suffering of the province.
The ANP leader asked the government to take the opposition parties on board before initiating a case to claim the province’s share in the country’s resources.
The chair later prorogued the session.
Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1267124/kp-lawmakers-unite-to-demand-threefold-pay-raise
NOWSHERA: Chief of his own faction of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-S) Maulana Samiul Haq has strongly criticised those opposing the approval of Rs300 million for Darul Uloom Haqqania and said that the views of Awami National Party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Pakistan People Party and America in this regard are similar.
“ANP Senator Zahid Khan and Federal Minister for Information Pervaiz Rashid are saying what America is saying about Darul Uloom Haqania and they all are trying to please the America and the West,” said the JUI-S chief while talking to mediapersons here at Akora Khattak on Friday after meeting a delegation of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf.
The PTI delegation included KP Minister for Public Health Engineering Shah Farman and Minister for Elementary and Secondary Education Mohammad Atif Khan, secretary education Qaisir Alam and others.
Senator Zahid had earlier expressed the ANP’s opposition to the allocation of Rs300 million in the provincial budget for Darul Uloom Haqqania situated in the hometown of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak.
Samiul Haq said that ANP had distributed Rs1.35 billion during its government among different religious seminaries and mosques mostly in Mardan. He said that the Europe and its media could not tolerate the great role of Darul Uloom Haqqania and always tried to spread rumours about it.
Regarding the allegation of its involvement in Benazir Bhutto murder case, he said that the religious institution had no link with terrorism and its activities were focused on education.
He said that former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani visited the institution last year and appreciated its role in spreading religious education. He said that former prime minister Benazir Bhutto had given special permission to spend the allocated fund of Senate on Darul Uloom Haqania and a big hall ‘Darul Hadith’ had been constructed with that amount. He said that the students of this institution were mostly heads of different Islamic universities.
Meanwhile, a handout issued in Peshawar said that provincial ministers Shah Farman and Atif Khan visited the seminary and met JUI-S chief Maulana Samiul Haq and other religious scholars.
It said that the ministers told the ulema that the PTI-led provincial government had taken steps to ensure proper teaching of religious as well as modern knowledge in madressahs.
It quoted them as saying that the Haqqania was the centre of religious education in Pakistan and the higher secondary school present in the seminary was established in 1936 and affiliated with the Board of Intermediate And Secondary Education, Mardan.
They said that this historic institution had produced renowned ulema, teachers and political leaders, including late ANP leader Ajmal Khattak. They said that the previous ANP government distributed Rs1.37 billion among religious semianries of Mardan, but Haqqania was ignored.
The ministers said that the higher secondary school of Darul Uloom Al-Quran Haqqania where 1,000 students were studying would be upgraded to degree level. They appreciated the role of administration of Darul Uloom Haqqania in eradication of polio in the province. They said that in this religious institution the students would be taught English, mathematics, science, computer science, etc.
The ministers said that the position-holder students of this institution would be provided scholarships while arrangements would be made to send its teachers to Jamia al-Azhar for training.
Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1267120/opponents-of-haqqania-seminary-trying-to-please-us-samiul-haq
KP lawmakers unite to demand threefold pay raise
PESHAWAR: Members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Friday unanimously passed a resolution to demand a 300 per cent increase in their salary to bring it on par with the Balochistan MPAs’.
The resolution was moved in the house by JUI-F member Maulana Asmatullah.
Reading out the resolution, he said, “This assembly demands from the provincial government to bring the salaries and other allowances of its members on par with those of the members of the Balochistan Assembly, which is the poorest province in the country.” The resolution was passed unanimously with a loud shout of ‘Yes’ when Speaker Asad Qaiser put it to vote.
Currently, each member of the KP Assembly draws around Rs92,000 salary every month, while the monthly salary of every Balochistan MPA is more than Rs400,000, a local lawmaker told Dawn.
“I am sure that the government will increase our salary threefold,” he said.
The lawmaker said the resolution regarding the MPAs’ salary was passed unanimously and the implementation of unanimously passed resolution was binding on the provincial government.
Pass resolution asking govt to bring their salary and allowances on par with Balochistan PA members’
Asked why the Balochistan Assembly was cited a reason for pay raise call, mover of the resolution Asmatullah said, “We have identical culture.” He however didn’t say that the salary of MPAs in Balochistan was every high.
Earlier, the house passed Rs26.4 billion supplementary budget.
Speaker Asad Qaisar also formed a special committee of the house to verify the claims of the government on drastic reforms in its departments.
The names of the committee members will be notified afterwards.
The special committee was formed on the suggestion of ANP parliamentary leader Sardar Hussain Babak and after the approval of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak.
The committee’s formation came after the opposition rejected the chief minister’s claim about drastic reforms in the government departments insisting no such thing is visible.
The chief minister said when the PTI had formed the provincial government, no provincial department was functioning properly and that the government employees were involved in corrupt practices.
He added that in the three years, his government had introduced many reforms in all departments and that everyone could see improvement there compared with their state of affairs during the previous government.
“Previously, the thana and patwari cultures were flourishing in the province but now, they’ve changed for the better considerably,” he said.
Sardar Babak suggested that a committee of parliamentary leaders be made to ascertain whether reforms have been introduced in government departments as claimed by the CM.
He said the provincial government had failed to secure the province’s several rights from the centre during the last three years to the suffering of the province.
The ANP leader asked the government to take the opposition parties on board before initiating a case to claim the province’s share in the country’s resources.
The chair later prorogued the session.
Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1267124/kp-lawmakers-unite-to-demand-threefold-pay-raise
Last edited:
Syed Haider Imam
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
NGO allowed to manage basic health units in 17 districts
PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has allowed Sarhad Rural Support Programme to continue People Primary Healthcare Initiative programme and manage basic health units in 17 districts of the province for next 18 month.
The move has also poured cold water on the health departments earlier directive in May, asking the district health officers (DHOs) to take over charge of basic health units (BHUs) from SRSP by June 30, 2016.
Health Minister Sharam Tarakai told Dawn that SRSP agreed to continue to manage 572 BHUs in 17 districts till June 2018 because the government system was weak. Disengagement of SRSP will create healthcare problems, he admitted.
The minister said that SRSP had been given three-year extension in 2015 but it refused to continue the project after December 2015 and wrote letters to health department, seeking disassociation from the health department.
Minister admits weakness of govt system to run health facilities effectively
In this regard, there will be no notification from health department but SRSP will withdraw letters in which it has conveyed about disengagement from the government, he said.
The minister said that governments system was very slow due to which they faced a lot of issues regarding hiring of staff, purchase of drugs and equipment and repair and civil work while the partner organisations were able to make fast-tracked decisions and make thing happen in days instead of months if done under governments rules.
He said that in five districts, the BHUs were managed by government where situation was unsatisfactory.
Sources said that disappointed at the response of SRSP, health department alerted district health officers (DHOs) to take over the BHUs in their respective districts. The DHOs expressed readiness to take back control of BHUs because they werent happy over the contract with SRSP, which managed all staff in the BHUs where it worked, they added.
The SRSP started work in few BHUs in 2002 and ultimately got control of most of the health units of the province which irked the DHOs, who despite top officers in the district had no powers in health units where PPHI was in practice. All these BHUs have been outsourced to SRSP through memorandum of understanding, sources said.
They said that the PTI government had claimed that it would contract out the BHUs through transparent manner and in line with Public Private Partnership Act, 2012. The health department had also advertised the outsourcing programme for which over 50 NGOs had applied, they said.
The government also held meeting with SRSP wherein the former pledged to resolve all problems pointed out by the latter and in future there would be more flexibility in the contract, said sources.
They said that under the PPHI project, SRSP received all funds and spent the same on the BHUs. There was no audit of the amount given to SRSP because the governments from time to time escaped its responsibility to strengthen health system at the district level, they added.
Currently, SRSP has employed about 2,000 people including doctors, administrative personnel, lady health visitors, paramedics and Class-IV employees.
Sources said that the decision left the DHOs high and dry, who were preparing to take control of the BHUs by June 30. The DHOs said that they managed civil hospitals, rural health centres and tehsil hospitals so they could run the BHUs effectively.
However, the DHOs have to wait for one and half years to be able to look after the BHUs as the government is not going to strengthen the district health system and find solace in finding solution to people health through private partners.
The health department has also given assurance to SRSP that it would get smooth flow of funds in future as there had been numerous complaints about delay in release of funds and other official matters, said sources.
Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1267973/ngo-allowed-to-manage-basic-health-units-in-17-districts
Court stays recovery of Rs30m from former CMs special assistant
PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Tuesday stopped National Accountability Bureau from recovery of operational charges of around Rs30 million from a former special assistant to a former chief minister, Syed Masoom Shah, who had earlier entered into plea bargain in a case of possession of illegal assets.
The bench comprising Justice Nisar Hussain and Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth issued notice to National Accountability Bureau, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, for explaining its position and directed that till further order the controversial amount should not be recovered.
The bench issued the order in a writ petition filed by Syed Masoom Shah, who served as special assistant to former chief minister Ameer Haider Hoti, challenging the demand of operational charges by NAB as illegal and against judgments of the superior courts.
An accountability court had on April 28 approved a plea bargain application of Mr Shah on condition of payment of Rs258.75 million to NAB. He was arrested by the NAB on August 11, 2015, on charges of possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income and was subsequently granted bail by the high court on March 22.
Issues notice to NAB to explain its position
Barrister Waqar Ahmad appeared for the petitioner and stated that according to the agreement taken place between the petitioner and NAB, his client had deposited Rs91.75 million as down payment or first instalment, whereas subsequently he had to pay two more instalments of Rs85.387 million and Rs 67.612 million, respectively.
He stated that the petitioner had to pay the third installment till June 30. He added that the third instalment also included an amount of around Rs30 million as operational or incidental charges imposed by NAB.
Barrister Waqar pointed out that the superior courts had already declared the imposition of the operational charges by NAB as illegal. He added that Lahore High Court had first declared the operational charges by NAB as illegal in a case and the said judgment was upheld by Supreme Court of Pakistan.
It is worth mentioning that on February 18 an accountability court had rejected NABs application for giving final approval to the plea bargain of Mr Shah, citing several reasons for that.
The said order was challenged by the petitioner as well as by NAB before the high court. The high court had on March 22 granted bail to the petitioner and referred the case back to accountability court for deciding the plea bargain application afresh.
The petitioner had remained nazim of Shabqadar tehsil in Charssada from 2001 to 2004 and subsequently served as special assistant to chief minister during 2010 to 2013 during the coalition government of ANP and PPP in the province.
Earlier, in February this year the high court had declared as illegal the demand of operational cost by NAB from a distant relative of Ameer Haider Hoti, who had made a plea bargain in a high-profile case of receiving kickbacks in procurement of weapons for police department.
In that case, NAB was demanding operational charges to the tune of Rs29.5 million from Raza Ali, brother-in-law of Ameer Haider Hotis brother Ghazan Khan.
Raza Ali was arrested by NAB Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in January 2014. He was set free on bail by the high court on January 29, 2015, after he agreed to enter into plea bargain with NAB and to return Rs195 million, which he had received from a private contractor, Arshad Majeed, who was awarded most of the contracts of procurement of weapons and other equipment.
Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1267971/court-stays-recovery-of-rs30m-from-former-cms-special-assistant
Haqqania funding buck stops with CM
PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak is understood to have ordered the Rs300 million allocation for Darul Uloom Haqqania, a Nowshera seminary, in the budget of the next fiscal year.Though the funding stoked a controversy, the ruling PTIs chief, Imran Khan, has defended the move as an effort to mainstream seminaries in the province and said the Darul Uloom Haqqanias management was ready to carry out reforms.
Officials in the Auqaf department told Dawn that Rs300 million development funds were given to Darul Uloom Haqqania on the orders of the chief minister.
An official requesting anonymity said Chief Minister Pervez Khattak wrote a letter to the Auqaf department during the making of the 2016-17 budget to give funds to the Nowshera seminary in the Annual Development Programme (ADP).
He said a department could not approve any project involving such a huge amount on its own.
Official insists Khattak wrote to Auqaf dept for giving Nowshera seminary Rs300m
The projects valuing more than Rs60 million have to be passed by the Provincial Working Development Party (PDWP), he said.
The official said the Planning and Development (P&D) as well as all other departments had to discuss every development scheme included in the draft ADP with the chief minister.
Without the chief ministers approval, nothing can go on the ADP, he said.
The official aid the total of ADP allocation for the next year stood at Rs366 million of which Rs115.50 million were meant for 10 ongoing projects, while the rest i.e. Rs250.85 million had been allocated for eight new projects.
The White Paper 2016-17 includes the improvement of mosques/seminaries in the province, purchase of land for Muslim graveyards, and construction and rehabilitation of Darul Uloom Haqqania as major targets to be achieved this year.
Interestingly, the Auqaf and minorities affair department was mentioned in passing reference in the budget speech and there is no breakup of its projects available.
The Darul Uloom Haqqanias funding was mentioned in the white paper where the government declared that it woukd undertake the seminarys rehabilitation and construction.
The budgetary allocation for the seminary makes nearly half of the total allocation for the Auqaf department. The seminarys ADP share for year 2016-17 is around Rs150 million, while the total budget of the Auqaf department is about Rs366 billion.
An analysis of the provincial budgets presented since 2012-13 shows that private seminaries were not allocated such huge funding in the past.
Rs222 million was allocated for 18 projects of the Auqaf department during the outgoing year. Of it, Rs177.5 million has been utilised so far.
An allocation of Rs149 million was made for 17 projects in 2014-15; Rs106 million for 14 projects in 2013-14, and Rs67 million for 11 projects in 2012-13.
Officials in the Auqaf and P&D department downplayed the controversy saying such funding was a routine as the successive governments made allocations for seminaries in budgets.
They insisted the allocation in budget did not mean that seminaries would get the same amount of money.
Now, the department has to make the PC-I for this allocation, which will have to be approved by the PDWP, a P&D department official said.
On the other hand, officials in the finance department are tight-lipped about the whole affair.
When approached, all relevant officials both juniors and seniors feigned ignorance and said the P&D and Auqaf departments could comment on it.
Secretary of the Auqaf department Abdullah Mehsud told Dawn that the government was funding several seminaries.
He however denied receiving a letter from the chief minister ordering allocation of funds for Darul Uloom Haqqania and insisted instructions to that effect were given by the CMs office over the telephone.
Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1267777/haqqania-funding-buck-stops-with-cm
KP local govts to get Rs10 billion less than their share in ADP
PESHAWAR: The districts governments across the province are likely to get around Rs10 billion less than their share in the provincial Annual Development Programme (ADP) for 2016-17 in violation of local government law, according to official documents.
Under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Act, 2013, the provincial government is bound to allocate 30 per cent of ADP for local governments, which amounts to Rs37.5 billion in the ADP for 2016-17. But contrary to the law, the local governments would likely to get only 22.6 per cent share in ADP, according to official documents.
The planning and development department has pitched the provinces ADP for the year 2016-17 at Rs161 billion, of which provincial component makes for about Rs125 billion, while Rs36 billion will come from foreign funding.
However, under the LG Act, the government is bound to allocate 30 per cent of provincial component of ADP to districts. Under this formula, the share of district governments in ADP of Rs125 billion should be Rs37.5 billion.
Mardan nazim says provincial govt incompetent to generate funds
Section 53 of the KPLGA states: -----in addition to the establishment charges budgeted for the devolved functions and transfers in lieu of Octroi and Zilla taxes, the development grant for local governments shall be so determined that it is not less than thirty per cent of the total development budget of the province in the respective year.
In the budget, the government has allocated Rs33.9 billion for three tiers of local governments including district, tehsil/town and village and neighbourhood councils against their total share of Rs37.5 billion. Besides this, another big chunk of Rs5.67 billion out of the Rs33.9 billion will be released to the local governments subject to availability of funds. This brought downs that total district ADP portfolio to Rs28.23 billion, reveal the documents.
Minister for Local Government Inayatullah Khan, when contacted, said that funds for local governments were allocated, keeping in view Rs113 billion out of the total Rs125 billion ADP. Asked as to why budget allocation for district governments was not made in light of the total ADP, the minister said that Rs12 billion reflected in the ADP was actually the revenue to be generated from the state lands which was not generated yet.
Himayatullah Mayar, the district nazim of Mardan, said that provincial government had allocated funds for the development schemes in the budget for 2015-16 keeping in view the revenue based on assumptions.
The provincial government has repeated the same mistake and again a big chunk of revenue has been shown in the budget documents for the coming fiscal year which have no chance to be collected, he said. The local governments would again face huge cut on the development schemes as the provincial government was incompetent to generate money, he said.
In the outgoing fiscal year, the provincial government had earmarked Rs42 billion for the local governments as per their share in the provincial ADP. However, Rs12 billion was retained by the provincial government to complete the ongoing projects in the devolved departments.
The remaining Rs30 billion was divided in the three tiers of the local governments under the established formula based on population. Of total devolved ADP, each district and tehsil governments had a share of Rs8.587 billion while Rs13.1 billion went to the village and neighbourhood councils.
However, the provincial government slashed half of the budget for the district and tehsil governments and 31 per cent of the village and neighbourhood councils when the financial crisis emerged in the province in the third quarter of the ongoing financial year.
Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1267559/kp-local-govts-to-get-rs10-billion-less-than-their-share-in-adp
GDA takes steps for Galiyat beautification
BBOTTABAD: The Galiyat Development Authority (GDA) has taken an initiative to build infrastructure facilities and strictly check encroachments to conserve natural beauty of Galiyat region.
Whoever encroaches or violates the approved site plan or structure of a building in Galiyat region, shall be liable to punishment for the term not exceeding three years or fine up to one million rupees or both, said GDA spokesman while quoting from the relevant rules.
He said in a press statement that the director general or any authorised officer of the authority would have the powers to seal any building, structure or any premises for violation of any clause of the new ordinance.
The statement said that the beautification projects like face-lifting of the bazaars at Nathiagali, Dungagali, Ayubia, Tauhidabad and Changlagali and resting areas for the tourists at five different places were ready for inauguration.
It said that the newly-developed facilities included washrooms, tea spots, barbecue stoves, sitting areas and playing land and food street and flower markets in Nathiagali.
The computerisation of land record management and information system has also been completed and the people will be facilitated in the mutation and registry process, done through biometric system.
It was stated that 26-kilometre roads had been widened along with construction of the protection walls and barriers for safety of the people. The monitoring and evaluation unit has been introduced in the GDA for check and balance measures regarding beautification projects, roads and other development works. It quoted director admin Raza Ali Habib as saying that the composition of GDA was likely to be changed.
Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1267558/gda-takes-steps-for-galiyat-beautification
PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has allowed Sarhad Rural Support Programme to continue People Primary Healthcare Initiative programme and manage basic health units in 17 districts of the province for next 18 month.
The move has also poured cold water on the health departments earlier directive in May, asking the district health officers (DHOs) to take over charge of basic health units (BHUs) from SRSP by June 30, 2016.
Health Minister Sharam Tarakai told Dawn that SRSP agreed to continue to manage 572 BHUs in 17 districts till June 2018 because the government system was weak. Disengagement of SRSP will create healthcare problems, he admitted.
The minister said that SRSP had been given three-year extension in 2015 but it refused to continue the project after December 2015 and wrote letters to health department, seeking disassociation from the health department.
Minister admits weakness of govt system to run health facilities effectively
In this regard, there will be no notification from health department but SRSP will withdraw letters in which it has conveyed about disengagement from the government, he said.
The minister said that governments system was very slow due to which they faced a lot of issues regarding hiring of staff, purchase of drugs and equipment and repair and civil work while the partner organisations were able to make fast-tracked decisions and make thing happen in days instead of months if done under governments rules.
He said that in five districts, the BHUs were managed by government where situation was unsatisfactory.
Sources said that disappointed at the response of SRSP, health department alerted district health officers (DHOs) to take over the BHUs in their respective districts. The DHOs expressed readiness to take back control of BHUs because they werent happy over the contract with SRSP, which managed all staff in the BHUs where it worked, they added.
The SRSP started work in few BHUs in 2002 and ultimately got control of most of the health units of the province which irked the DHOs, who despite top officers in the district had no powers in health units where PPHI was in practice. All these BHUs have been outsourced to SRSP through memorandum of understanding, sources said.
They said that the PTI government had claimed that it would contract out the BHUs through transparent manner and in line with Public Private Partnership Act, 2012. The health department had also advertised the outsourcing programme for which over 50 NGOs had applied, they said.
The government also held meeting with SRSP wherein the former pledged to resolve all problems pointed out by the latter and in future there would be more flexibility in the contract, said sources.
They said that under the PPHI project, SRSP received all funds and spent the same on the BHUs. There was no audit of the amount given to SRSP because the governments from time to time escaped its responsibility to strengthen health system at the district level, they added.
Currently, SRSP has employed about 2,000 people including doctors, administrative personnel, lady health visitors, paramedics and Class-IV employees.
Sources said that the decision left the DHOs high and dry, who were preparing to take control of the BHUs by June 30. The DHOs said that they managed civil hospitals, rural health centres and tehsil hospitals so they could run the BHUs effectively.
However, the DHOs have to wait for one and half years to be able to look after the BHUs as the government is not going to strengthen the district health system and find solace in finding solution to people health through private partners.
The health department has also given assurance to SRSP that it would get smooth flow of funds in future as there had been numerous complaints about delay in release of funds and other official matters, said sources.
Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1267973/ngo-allowed-to-manage-basic-health-units-in-17-districts
Court stays recovery of Rs30m from former CMs special assistant
PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Tuesday stopped National Accountability Bureau from recovery of operational charges of around Rs30 million from a former special assistant to a former chief minister, Syed Masoom Shah, who had earlier entered into plea bargain in a case of possession of illegal assets.
The bench comprising Justice Nisar Hussain and Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth issued notice to National Accountability Bureau, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, for explaining its position and directed that till further order the controversial amount should not be recovered.
The bench issued the order in a writ petition filed by Syed Masoom Shah, who served as special assistant to former chief minister Ameer Haider Hoti, challenging the demand of operational charges by NAB as illegal and against judgments of the superior courts.
An accountability court had on April 28 approved a plea bargain application of Mr Shah on condition of payment of Rs258.75 million to NAB. He was arrested by the NAB on August 11, 2015, on charges of possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income and was subsequently granted bail by the high court on March 22.
Issues notice to NAB to explain its position
Barrister Waqar Ahmad appeared for the petitioner and stated that according to the agreement taken place between the petitioner and NAB, his client had deposited Rs91.75 million as down payment or first instalment, whereas subsequently he had to pay two more instalments of Rs85.387 million and Rs 67.612 million, respectively.
He stated that the petitioner had to pay the third installment till June 30. He added that the third instalment also included an amount of around Rs30 million as operational or incidental charges imposed by NAB.
Barrister Waqar pointed out that the superior courts had already declared the imposition of the operational charges by NAB as illegal. He added that Lahore High Court had first declared the operational charges by NAB as illegal in a case and the said judgment was upheld by Supreme Court of Pakistan.
It is worth mentioning that on February 18 an accountability court had rejected NABs application for giving final approval to the plea bargain of Mr Shah, citing several reasons for that.
The said order was challenged by the petitioner as well as by NAB before the high court. The high court had on March 22 granted bail to the petitioner and referred the case back to accountability court for deciding the plea bargain application afresh.
The petitioner had remained nazim of Shabqadar tehsil in Charssada from 2001 to 2004 and subsequently served as special assistant to chief minister during 2010 to 2013 during the coalition government of ANP and PPP in the province.
Earlier, in February this year the high court had declared as illegal the demand of operational cost by NAB from a distant relative of Ameer Haider Hoti, who had made a plea bargain in a high-profile case of receiving kickbacks in procurement of weapons for police department.
In that case, NAB was demanding operational charges to the tune of Rs29.5 million from Raza Ali, brother-in-law of Ameer Haider Hotis brother Ghazan Khan.
Raza Ali was arrested by NAB Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in January 2014. He was set free on bail by the high court on January 29, 2015, after he agreed to enter into plea bargain with NAB and to return Rs195 million, which he had received from a private contractor, Arshad Majeed, who was awarded most of the contracts of procurement of weapons and other equipment.
Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1267971/court-stays-recovery-of-rs30m-from-former-cms-special-assistant
Haqqania funding buck stops with CM
PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak is understood to have ordered the Rs300 million allocation for Darul Uloom Haqqania, a Nowshera seminary, in the budget of the next fiscal year.Though the funding stoked a controversy, the ruling PTIs chief, Imran Khan, has defended the move as an effort to mainstream seminaries in the province and said the Darul Uloom Haqqanias management was ready to carry out reforms.
Officials in the Auqaf department told Dawn that Rs300 million development funds were given to Darul Uloom Haqqania on the orders of the chief minister.
An official requesting anonymity said Chief Minister Pervez Khattak wrote a letter to the Auqaf department during the making of the 2016-17 budget to give funds to the Nowshera seminary in the Annual Development Programme (ADP).
He said a department could not approve any project involving such a huge amount on its own.
Official insists Khattak wrote to Auqaf dept for giving Nowshera seminary Rs300m
The projects valuing more than Rs60 million have to be passed by the Provincial Working Development Party (PDWP), he said.
The official said the Planning and Development (P&D) as well as all other departments had to discuss every development scheme included in the draft ADP with the chief minister.
Without the chief ministers approval, nothing can go on the ADP, he said.
The official aid the total of ADP allocation for the next year stood at Rs366 million of which Rs115.50 million were meant for 10 ongoing projects, while the rest i.e. Rs250.85 million had been allocated for eight new projects.
The White Paper 2016-17 includes the improvement of mosques/seminaries in the province, purchase of land for Muslim graveyards, and construction and rehabilitation of Darul Uloom Haqqania as major targets to be achieved this year.
Interestingly, the Auqaf and minorities affair department was mentioned in passing reference in the budget speech and there is no breakup of its projects available.
The Darul Uloom Haqqanias funding was mentioned in the white paper where the government declared that it woukd undertake the seminarys rehabilitation and construction.
The budgetary allocation for the seminary makes nearly half of the total allocation for the Auqaf department. The seminarys ADP share for year 2016-17 is around Rs150 million, while the total budget of the Auqaf department is about Rs366 billion.
An analysis of the provincial budgets presented since 2012-13 shows that private seminaries were not allocated such huge funding in the past.
Rs222 million was allocated for 18 projects of the Auqaf department during the outgoing year. Of it, Rs177.5 million has been utilised so far.
An allocation of Rs149 million was made for 17 projects in 2014-15; Rs106 million for 14 projects in 2013-14, and Rs67 million for 11 projects in 2012-13.
Officials in the Auqaf and P&D department downplayed the controversy saying such funding was a routine as the successive governments made allocations for seminaries in budgets.
They insisted the allocation in budget did not mean that seminaries would get the same amount of money.
Now, the department has to make the PC-I for this allocation, which will have to be approved by the PDWP, a P&D department official said.
On the other hand, officials in the finance department are tight-lipped about the whole affair.
When approached, all relevant officials both juniors and seniors feigned ignorance and said the P&D and Auqaf departments could comment on it.
Secretary of the Auqaf department Abdullah Mehsud told Dawn that the government was funding several seminaries.
He however denied receiving a letter from the chief minister ordering allocation of funds for Darul Uloom Haqqania and insisted instructions to that effect were given by the CMs office over the telephone.
Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1267777/haqqania-funding-buck-stops-with-cm
KP local govts to get Rs10 billion less than their share in ADP
PESHAWAR: The districts governments across the province are likely to get around Rs10 billion less than their share in the provincial Annual Development Programme (ADP) for 2016-17 in violation of local government law, according to official documents.
Under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Act, 2013, the provincial government is bound to allocate 30 per cent of ADP for local governments, which amounts to Rs37.5 billion in the ADP for 2016-17. But contrary to the law, the local governments would likely to get only 22.6 per cent share in ADP, according to official documents.
The planning and development department has pitched the provinces ADP for the year 2016-17 at Rs161 billion, of which provincial component makes for about Rs125 billion, while Rs36 billion will come from foreign funding.
However, under the LG Act, the government is bound to allocate 30 per cent of provincial component of ADP to districts. Under this formula, the share of district governments in ADP of Rs125 billion should be Rs37.5 billion.
Mardan nazim says provincial govt incompetent to generate funds
Section 53 of the KPLGA states: -----in addition to the establishment charges budgeted for the devolved functions and transfers in lieu of Octroi and Zilla taxes, the development grant for local governments shall be so determined that it is not less than thirty per cent of the total development budget of the province in the respective year.
In the budget, the government has allocated Rs33.9 billion for three tiers of local governments including district, tehsil/town and village and neighbourhood councils against their total share of Rs37.5 billion. Besides this, another big chunk of Rs5.67 billion out of the Rs33.9 billion will be released to the local governments subject to availability of funds. This brought downs that total district ADP portfolio to Rs28.23 billion, reveal the documents.
Minister for Local Government Inayatullah Khan, when contacted, said that funds for local governments were allocated, keeping in view Rs113 billion out of the total Rs125 billion ADP. Asked as to why budget allocation for district governments was not made in light of the total ADP, the minister said that Rs12 billion reflected in the ADP was actually the revenue to be generated from the state lands which was not generated yet.
Himayatullah Mayar, the district nazim of Mardan, said that provincial government had allocated funds for the development schemes in the budget for 2015-16 keeping in view the revenue based on assumptions.
The provincial government has repeated the same mistake and again a big chunk of revenue has been shown in the budget documents for the coming fiscal year which have no chance to be collected, he said. The local governments would again face huge cut on the development schemes as the provincial government was incompetent to generate money, he said.
In the outgoing fiscal year, the provincial government had earmarked Rs42 billion for the local governments as per their share in the provincial ADP. However, Rs12 billion was retained by the provincial government to complete the ongoing projects in the devolved departments.
The remaining Rs30 billion was divided in the three tiers of the local governments under the established formula based on population. Of total devolved ADP, each district and tehsil governments had a share of Rs8.587 billion while Rs13.1 billion went to the village and neighbourhood councils.
However, the provincial government slashed half of the budget for the district and tehsil governments and 31 per cent of the village and neighbourhood councils when the financial crisis emerged in the province in the third quarter of the ongoing financial year.
Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1267559/kp-local-govts-to-get-rs10-billion-less-than-their-share-in-adp
GDA takes steps for Galiyat beautification
BBOTTABAD: The Galiyat Development Authority (GDA) has taken an initiative to build infrastructure facilities and strictly check encroachments to conserve natural beauty of Galiyat region.
Whoever encroaches or violates the approved site plan or structure of a building in Galiyat region, shall be liable to punishment for the term not exceeding three years or fine up to one million rupees or both, said GDA spokesman while quoting from the relevant rules.
He said in a press statement that the director general or any authorised officer of the authority would have the powers to seal any building, structure or any premises for violation of any clause of the new ordinance.
The statement said that the beautification projects like face-lifting of the bazaars at Nathiagali, Dungagali, Ayubia, Tauhidabad and Changlagali and resting areas for the tourists at five different places were ready for inauguration.
It said that the newly-developed facilities included washrooms, tea spots, barbecue stoves, sitting areas and playing land and food street and flower markets in Nathiagali.
The computerisation of land record management and information system has also been completed and the people will be facilitated in the mutation and registry process, done through biometric system.
It was stated that 26-kilometre roads had been widened along with construction of the protection walls and barriers for safety of the people. The monitoring and evaluation unit has been introduced in the GDA for check and balance measures regarding beautification projects, roads and other development works. It quoted director admin Raza Ali Habib as saying that the composition of GDA was likely to be changed.
Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1267558/gda-takes-steps-for-galiyat-beautification
Last edited:
Syed Haider Imam
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
250 mini hydropower projects to be functional in KP by end 2016
PESHAWAR: About 250 mini and micro hydropower projects (MHPs) will become fully operational and functional to provide electricity to around 245,000 people in hilly areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa through community-based local institutional mechanisms by the end of 2016.
This was announced by heads of various NGOs/firms working on the construction of MHPs while speaking at a joint press conference at Peshawar Press Club on Sunday. The contractors headed by chief executive officer of Hydrolink Engineering and Equipment Company (pvt) limited Fazal Rabbi included Fatma Welfare Foundation CEO Farhad Khan and Dir Area Development Organisations Mohammad Khaliq.
Speaking about his work experience with communities, Mr Rabbi said that people living in the remote localities in Chitral, Dir and Battagram districts had welcomed launching of the MHPs as they did not have power supply since inception of the country. He said that though power supply lines passed through different localities, some villages in these districts were not given electricity for unknown reasons.
Appreciating the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, Mr Rabbi said that the hydropower projects would help tap the water potential and enable people to get electricity on low cost to increase their income. Besides the peoples dependence o fuel (kerosene) would be reduced and they would be encouraged to protect their forests.
Contractors say over 200,000 people will benefit from the projects
He said that the hydropower projects were useful for the local people as these would provide low cost electricity from Rs2 to Rs4 per unit to the local community.
We, being the implementer, are confident that by the end of 2016 about 250 MHPs will become fully operational and functional to provide electricity to some 245,000 mountain people through community-based local institutional mechanisms, he said.
Mr Rabbi said that the NGOs/construction firms were working with the Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation (Pedo) under close supervision of the Energy and Power (E&P) Department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since 2014. He said that the 356 MHPs were purely government-funded community empowerment and participatory projects working successfully.
We have so far found Pedos new management and E&P Department committed to reforming and transforming the organisation into a self-sustainable institution that will not only fulfil the provincial energy demands, but also contribute to the national energy security, he claimed.
Farhad Khan claimed that Pedo was being run transparently and license was given during two weeks of application and feasibility submitted within six months. He said that progress on 356 MHPs had suffered due to some initial challenges, but now the overall progress and quality of work had no precedent. The projects are regularly monitored by Pedo, E&P Department and provincial monitoring and evaluation directorate.
Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2016
PESHAWAR: About 250 mini and micro hydropower projects (MHPs) will become fully operational and functional to provide electricity to around 245,000 people in hilly areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa through community-based local institutional mechanisms by the end of 2016.
This was announced by heads of various NGOs/firms working on the construction of MHPs while speaking at a joint press conference at Peshawar Press Club on Sunday. The contractors headed by chief executive officer of Hydrolink Engineering and Equipment Company (pvt) limited Fazal Rabbi included Fatma Welfare Foundation CEO Farhad Khan and Dir Area Development Organisations Mohammad Khaliq.
Speaking about his work experience with communities, Mr Rabbi said that people living in the remote localities in Chitral, Dir and Battagram districts had welcomed launching of the MHPs as they did not have power supply since inception of the country. He said that though power supply lines passed through different localities, some villages in these districts were not given electricity for unknown reasons.
Appreciating the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, Mr Rabbi said that the hydropower projects would help tap the water potential and enable people to get electricity on low cost to increase their income. Besides the peoples dependence o fuel (kerosene) would be reduced and they would be encouraged to protect their forests.
Contractors say over 200,000 people will benefit from the projects
He said that the hydropower projects were useful for the local people as these would provide low cost electricity from Rs2 to Rs4 per unit to the local community.
We, being the implementer, are confident that by the end of 2016 about 250 MHPs will become fully operational and functional to provide electricity to some 245,000 mountain people through community-based local institutional mechanisms, he said.
Mr Rabbi said that the NGOs/construction firms were working with the Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation (Pedo) under close supervision of the Energy and Power (E&P) Department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since 2014. He said that the 356 MHPs were purely government-funded community empowerment and participatory projects working successfully.
We have so far found Pedos new management and E&P Department committed to reforming and transforming the organisation into a self-sustainable institution that will not only fulfil the provincial energy demands, but also contribute to the national energy security, he claimed.
Farhad Khan claimed that Pedo was being run transparently and license was given during two weeks of application and feasibility submitted within six months. He said that progress on 356 MHPs had suffered due to some initial challenges, but now the overall progress and quality of work had no precedent. The projects are regularly monitored by Pedo, E&P Department and provincial monitoring and evaluation directorate.
Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2016
PESHAWAR: About 250 mini and micro hydropower projects (MHPs) will become fully operational and functional to provide electricity to around 245,000 people in hilly areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa through community-based local institutional mechanisms by the end of 2016.
This was announced by heads of various NGOs/firms working on the construction of MHPs while speaking at a joint press conference at Peshawar Press Club on Sunday. The contractors headed by chief executive officer of Hydrolink Engineering and Equipment Company (pvt) limited Fazal Rabbi included Fatma Welfare Foundation CEO Farhad Khan and Dir Area Development Organisations Mohammad Khaliq.
Speaking about his work experience with communities, Mr Rabbi said that people living in the remote localities in Chitral, Dir and Battagram districts had welcomed launching of the MHPs as they did not have power supply since inception of the country. He said that though power supply lines passed through different localities, some villages in these districts were not given electricity for unknown reasons.
Appreciating the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, Mr Rabbi said that the hydropower projects would help tap the water potential and enable people to get electricity on low cost to increase their income. Besides the peoples dependence o fuel (kerosene) would be reduced and they would be encouraged to protect their forests.
Contractors say over 200,000 people will benefit from the projects
He said that the hydropower projects were useful for the local people as these would provide low cost electricity from Rs2 to Rs4 per unit to the local community.
We, being the implementer, are confident that by the end of 2016 about 250 MHPs will become fully operational and functional to provide electricity to some 245,000 mountain people through community-based local institutional mechanisms, he said.
Mr Rabbi said that the NGOs/construction firms were working with the Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation (Pedo) under close supervision of the Energy and Power (E&P) Department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since 2014. He said that the 356 MHPs were purely government-funded community empowerment and participatory projects working successfully.
We have so far found Pedos new management and E&P Department committed to reforming and transforming the organisation into a self-sustainable institution that will not only fulfil the provincial energy demands, but also contribute to the national energy security, he claimed.
Farhad Khan claimed that Pedo was being run transparently and license was given during two weeks of application and feasibility submitted within six months. He said that progress on 356 MHPs had suffered due to some initial challenges, but now the overall progress and quality of work had no precedent. The projects are regularly monitored by Pedo, E&P Department and provincial monitoring and evaluation directorate.
Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2016
PESHAWAR: About 250 mini and micro hydropower projects (MHPs) will become fully operational and functional to provide electricity to around 245,000 people in hilly areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa through community-based local institutional mechanisms by the end of 2016.
This was announced by heads of various NGOs/firms working on the construction of MHPs while speaking at a joint press conference at Peshawar Press Club on Sunday. The contractors headed by chief executive officer of Hydrolink Engineering and Equipment Company (pvt) limited Fazal Rabbi included Fatma Welfare Foundation CEO Farhad Khan and Dir Area Development Organisations Mohammad Khaliq.
Speaking about his work experience with communities, Mr Rabbi said that people living in the remote localities in Chitral, Dir and Battagram districts had welcomed launching of the MHPs as they did not have power supply since inception of the country. He said that though power supply lines passed through different localities, some villages in these districts were not given electricity for unknown reasons.
Appreciating the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, Mr Rabbi said that the hydropower projects would help tap the water potential and enable people to get electricity on low cost to increase their income. Besides the peoples dependence o fuel (kerosene) would be reduced and they would be encouraged to protect their forests.
Contractors say over 200,000 people will benefit from the projects
He said that the hydropower projects were useful for the local people as these would provide low cost electricity from Rs2 to Rs4 per unit to the local community.
We, being the implementer, are confident that by the end of 2016 about 250 MHPs will become fully operational and functional to provide electricity to some 245,000 mountain people through community-based local institutional mechanisms, he said.
Mr Rabbi said that the NGOs/construction firms were working with the Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation (Pedo) under close supervision of the Energy and Power (E&P) Department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since 2014. He said that the 356 MHPs were purely government-funded community empowerment and participatory projects working successfully.
We have so far found Pedos new management and E&P Department committed to reforming and transforming the organisation into a self-sustainable institution that will not only fulfil the provincial energy demands, but also contribute to the national energy security, he claimed.
Farhad Khan claimed that Pedo was being run transparently and license was given during two weeks of application and feasibility submitted within six months. He said that progress on 356 MHPs had suffered due to some initial challenges, but now the overall progress and quality of work had no precedent. The projects are regularly monitored by Pedo, E&P Department and provincial monitoring and evaluation directorate.
Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2016
Last edited:
Syed Haider Imam
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
75pc of MPAs did not take part in KP budget debate: Fafen
PESHAWAR: Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen) has observed that the budget session of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly was marked by low interest of lawmakers and 75 per cent of the MPAs remained inactive during the session.
In a statement, the organisation that monitors parliamentary businesses in the parliament as well as four provincial assemblies reported that 92 members (75 per cent of the current membership - 123) did not contribute to the budget debate.
Ten female lawmakers were from PTI followed by JUI-F (three), PML-N and QWP-S (two each) and one each of AJIP, ANP, JI and PPP. Similarly, of the 71 male members not participating in the budget debate, 37 belonged to PTI followed by JUI-F and PML-N (eight each), QWP-S (seven), AJIP (four), JI (three), ANP (two), PPPP (one) and an independent lawmaker.
Of the 31 members who took part in the budget debate, only one was female. The only woman lawmaker from PML-N debated the budget for 15 minutes whereas male lawmakers debated it for 659 minutes.
The minister for finance presented the annual budget 2016-17 as well as the supplementary budget statement for the year 2015-16 during the first sitting.
He took 104 minutes to present the budget. The leader of the opposition opened the budget debate in the second sitting and spoke for 52 minutes.
The assembly passed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Bill, 2016 during its sixth sitting and several treasury members left the House when the motion was being moved to pass the bill.
Their absence was also noted by the chief minister who announced to initiate an inquiry against them. The House approved 59 demands for grants for the year 2016-17 and rejected 953 cut motions on them while 50 supplementary demands for grants for the year 2015-16 were approved by setting aside 292 cut motions on them.
The session, comprising eight sittings, started on June 14 and ended on June 24. On average, each sitting started 15 minutes late and lasted two hours and 17 minutes with 47 lawmakers (38 per cent) present at the start and 51 (41 per cent) at the time of adjournment.
The chief minister attended seven sittings for 69 per cent of the proceedings’ time. The leader of the opposition attended six sittings for 77 per cent of the proceedings’ time while the finance minister was present during the entire proceedings of eight sittings.
Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1267327/75pc-of-mpas-did-not-take-part-in-kp-budget-debate-fafen
Court stays recovery of Rs30m from former CM’s special assistant
PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Tuesday stopped National Accountability Bureau from recovery of operational charges of around Rs30 million from a former special assistant to a former chief minister, Syed Masoom Shah, who had earlier entered into plea bargain in a case of possession of illegal assets.
The bench comprising Justice Nisar Hussain and Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth issued notice to National Accountability Bureau, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, for explaining its position and directed that till further order the controversial amount should not be recovered.
The bench issued the order in a writ petition filed by Syed Masoom Shah, who served as special assistant to former chief minister Ameer Haider Hoti, challenging the demand of operational charges by NAB as illegal and against judgments of the superior courts.
An accountability court had on April 28 approved a plea bargain application of Mr Shah on condition of payment of Rs258.75 million to NAB. He was arrested by the NAB on August 11, 2015, on charges of possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income and was subsequently granted bail by the high court on March 22.
Issues notice to NAB to explain its position
Barrister Waqar Ahmad appeared for the petitioner and stated that according to the agreement taken place between the petitioner and NAB, his client had deposited Rs91.75 million as down payment or first instalment, whereas subsequently he had to pay two more instalments of Rs85.387 million and Rs 67.612 million, respectively.
He stated that the petitioner had to pay the third installment till June 30. He added that the third instalment also included an amount of around Rs30 million as operational or incidental charges imposed by NAB.
Barrister Waqar pointed out that the superior courts had already declared the imposition of the operational charges by NAB as illegal. He added that Lahore High Court had first declared the operational charges by NAB as illegal in a case and the said judgment was upheld by Supreme Court of Pakistan.
It is worth mentioning that on February 18 an accountability court had rejected NAB’s application for giving final approval to the plea bargain of Mr Shah, citing several reasons for that.
The said order was challenged by the petitioner as well as by NAB before the high court. The high court had on March 22 granted bail to the petitioner and referred the case back to accountability court for deciding the plea bargain application afresh.
The petitioner had remained nazim of Shabqadar tehsil in Charssada from 2001 to 2004 and subsequently served as special assistant to chief minister during 2010 to 2013 during the coalition government of ANP and PPP in the province.
Earlier, in February this year the high court had declared as illegal the demand of operational cost by NAB from a distant relative of Ameer Haider Hoti, who had made a plea bargain in a high-profile case of receiving kickbacks in procurement of weapons for police department.
In that case, NAB was demanding operational charges to the tune of Rs29.5 million from Raza Ali, brother-in-law of Ameer Haider Hoti’s brother Ghazan Khan.
Raza Ali was arrested by NAB Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in January 2014. He was set free on bail by the high court on January 29, 2015, after he agreed to enter into plea bargain with NAB and to return Rs195 million, which he had received from a private contractor, Arshad Majeed, who was awarded most of the contracts of procurement of weapons and other equipment.
Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2016
http://www
Pedo a vibrant organisation, insists chief
PESHAWAR: Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation CEO Akbar Ayub Khan on Thursday said the Asian Development Bank’s willingness to invest $300 million showed its faith in the entity and that the overwhelming response to its IPPs was enough to prove that it was a vibrant organisation.
“Will the ADB have shown interest in funding our micro projects if it had been a dysfunctional organisation? In fact, the ADB is putting a consortium together to raise $1 billion for the projects. It shows its faith in the work we are doing,” he said, rejecting the allegations of chairman of the Pedo board of directors Shakeel Durrani, whose resignation was accepted by the chief minister on Tuesday, a day before Pedo’s 14th meeting of its BoD was meeting on Wednesday.
In a statement, Mr. Durrani, BoD chairman, dubbed Pedo as a totally incompetent and dysfunctional organisation and said he wanted to order inquiries into the extension of time and additional payment of Rs700 million to contractor and delay in the extension of transmission line to Machai and Ranolia power projects.
The Pedo CEO said no payment had been made to the contractor for his claim for cost escalation on account of delay in the execution of the project and that the organisation was contesting the assertion and was going for arbitration to settle the issue.
“We will go to the last forum available to contest the cost escalation claim,” he said.
He also said Pedo had made payments to NTDC for extension of transmission line to Machai and Ranolia, which together generated 19.6 megawatts of hydel power, and that the delay was on behalf of the federal entity.
“Nevertheless, since Mr. Durrani wanted an inquiry, I had already done so. What was the issue then?”
On the recruitment and exorbitant pay packages, Mr. Akbar said the entire recruitment was done through a human resource committee constituted by the BoD, which also approved the Pedo management structure and pay packages.
He said candidates were interviewed first by the HR committee and later by the entire BoD and made the final selection.
“I was hired after due process. I am surprised that Mr. Durrani has made such an allegation,” he said. The Pedo CEO said the basic problem was that the BoD chairman, a retired bureaucrat and former Wapda chairman, wanted to run the Pedo as a government department.
“He was against turning Pedo into a corporate entity,” Akbar Ayub Khan said. “This was the basic disagreement.” His claims and allegations were untrue, baseless and contrary to facts, he said.
Mr. Khan said five projects initiated by Pedo were at various stages of completion with a total power generating capacity of 214 megawatts, while a project comprising 356 micro hydel power stations was under implementation to provide cheap and off grid electricity to 350,000 people in far flung areas.
He said Pedo was in the process of enhancing the number of micro hydel projects to 1,000 to cater to one million consumers.
He said Pedo was the only organisation in the public sector to developed investor -friendly KP Hydro Power Policy 2016 and associated guidelines in 2016.
He disclosed that Pedo had offered seven projects with a total power generating capacity of 668 megawatts to private sector for investment worth $2 billion and it was for the first time that it had received overwhelming response from 56 companies for pre-qualification.
The CEO alleged that Mr. Durrani interfered in the day to day operations of the organisation and wanted management to comply with his whims including his support for a private solar power company, whose issue was eventually decided in Pedo’s favour by the chairman’s own appointed so-called grievances committee.
“Earlier, Mr. Durrani was a member of the energy apex committee of KP. However, he preferred to be appointed as the chairman of the Pedo Board.
“Having involvement in power sector consultancy and association with Wapda, he had a conflict of interest which was not disclosed at the time of his appointment as the chairman of the Pedo Board,” he said.
The CEO added that the situation became pronounced in relation to recently advertised projects to private sector.
Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1266886/pedo-a-vibrant-organisation-insists-chief
KP’s new budget — unclear priorities, unfair allocations
PESHAWAR: Analysing the provincial budget 2016-17, Umer Asghar Khan Foundation, a civil society organisation, has described it as contrary to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s priorities and based on discrimination. It urged the government to reconsider allocation of funds for the underdeveloped districts on equal basis.
Besides the opposition parties, members of the treasury benches are also unhappy over the unjust distribution of funds, blaming Chief Minister Pervez Khattak for inequitable allocations and have sought help of PTI chairman Imran Khan to ensure transparency.
Speaking at a press conference at Peshawar Press Club on Wednesday, Rashida Dohad, executive director of Umer Asghar Khan Foundation, said that one of the ruling PTI’s much-publicised priorities was an empowered local government to give people in villages and neighbourhoods greater control over development decisions and the delivery of essential social services.
Flanked by another rights activist, Rakhshinda Naaz, she said that despite the passage of an enabling LG law in 2013 and conclusion of local elections in 2014-15, local governments in KP continued to face formidable challenges.
CSO urges govt to review allocations for southern districts
“The allocations show that the promised fiscal decentralisation is yet to benefit local governance. It fails to allocate ‘not less than 30 per cent’ of the total development budget for local government as stipulated in the KP LG Act 2013. Rs33.9 billion allocated for local governments in the districts, tehsils, villages and neighbourhoods is 21.06 per cent of the total development outlay of Rs161 billion,” she said.
Another Rs9.4 billion, she said, was placed under the head of local government, but much of it was already allocated to specific projects. Even if combined, these amounts account for only 26.9 per cent of the total development funds, falling short of the promised 30 per cent.
Allocations for development also appear to mock the stated commitment to equitable opportunities, fair distribution of resources, and, equal rights emblazoned on KP’s budget documents. For example, Rs5.1 billion or 3.22 per cent of the total development funds is allocated for Nowshera, the home district of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, she said.
Rashida Dohad said that the generous amount given only to Nowshera district sharply contrasted with the allocation of only Rs4.47 billion or 2.78 per cent of the total development budget to seven chronically poor southern districts of Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan, Hangu, Karak, Kohat, Lakki Marwat and Tank. The Hazara region consisting of six districts of Abbottabad, Haripur, Battagram, Mansehra, Kohistan and Torghar also fared poorly with a cumulative allocation of only Rs4.54 billion or 2.82 per cent of the total development outlay.
A comparison of current allocations with those made in the preceding year brings the inequities into sharp focus.
Funds for Nowshera show an increase from 3.08 per cent of the total budget in the preceding year to 3.22 per cent in the current fiscal year. On the other hand, seven poor southern districts and six districts in Hazara have endured budget cuts.
The southern districts were allocated 3.2 per cent and Hazara 3.1 per cent of the total development outlay in FY2015-16. These are reduced to 2.78 per cent and 2.82 per cent, respectively, in the current year.
Inequities exist even within regions. While DI Khan with a population of about 850,000 has received Rs1.62 billion, Tank district with an estimated population of 240,000 has been allocated a paltry sum of Rs10 million. Haripur has received Rs2.17 billion while Kohistan – the poorest district in the province whose people have suffered unspeakable devastation from 2010-15 due to a series of natural disasters – is allocated a mere Rs0.17 billion.
The motivation behind public finance decisions clearly justifies the calls for an NFC-type agreement for transparent distribution of development funds from the province to the districts. If such criteria are adopted provincially, the seven southern districts would get 21 per cent or Rs33.81 billion and Hazara’s due share would be 19.4 per cent or Rs31.23 billion.
KP’s total development outlay for FY2016-17 is Rs161 billion. Of this, Rs118.42 billion or a staggering 73.56 per cent are “umbrella” or “block” funds, showing an upward trend from the preceding year in which block allocations accounted for 71 per cent of the development budget.
KP’s budget 2016-17 also exposes some disconnect between funds allocated and stated policy decisions. For example, in March 2016 the KP government prominently advertised its decision to spend Rs8 billion for reconstructing 760 schools destroyed by the 2005 earthquake.
The FY2016-17 budget does not register the increased amount, and continues to show a total of Rs3.7 billion for the reconstruction which was first included in FY2014-15.
Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1266695/kps-new-budget-unclear-priorities-unfair-allocations
PESHAWAR: Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen) has observed that the budget session of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly was marked by low interest of lawmakers and 75 per cent of the MPAs remained inactive during the session.
In a statement, the organisation that monitors parliamentary businesses in the parliament as well as four provincial assemblies reported that 92 members (75 per cent of the current membership - 123) did not contribute to the budget debate.
Ten female lawmakers were from PTI followed by JUI-F (three), PML-N and QWP-S (two each) and one each of AJIP, ANP, JI and PPP. Similarly, of the 71 male members not participating in the budget debate, 37 belonged to PTI followed by JUI-F and PML-N (eight each), QWP-S (seven), AJIP (four), JI (three), ANP (two), PPPP (one) and an independent lawmaker.
Of the 31 members who took part in the budget debate, only one was female. The only woman lawmaker from PML-N debated the budget for 15 minutes whereas male lawmakers debated it for 659 minutes.
The minister for finance presented the annual budget 2016-17 as well as the supplementary budget statement for the year 2015-16 during the first sitting.
He took 104 minutes to present the budget. The leader of the opposition opened the budget debate in the second sitting and spoke for 52 minutes.
The assembly passed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Bill, 2016 during its sixth sitting and several treasury members left the House when the motion was being moved to pass the bill.
Their absence was also noted by the chief minister who announced to initiate an inquiry against them. The House approved 59 demands for grants for the year 2016-17 and rejected 953 cut motions on them while 50 supplementary demands for grants for the year 2015-16 were approved by setting aside 292 cut motions on them.
The session, comprising eight sittings, started on June 14 and ended on June 24. On average, each sitting started 15 minutes late and lasted two hours and 17 minutes with 47 lawmakers (38 per cent) present at the start and 51 (41 per cent) at the time of adjournment.
The chief minister attended seven sittings for 69 per cent of the proceedings’ time. The leader of the opposition attended six sittings for 77 per cent of the proceedings’ time while the finance minister was present during the entire proceedings of eight sittings.
Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1267327/75pc-of-mpas-did-not-take-part-in-kp-budget-debate-fafen
Court stays recovery of Rs30m from former CM’s special assistant
PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Tuesday stopped National Accountability Bureau from recovery of operational charges of around Rs30 million from a former special assistant to a former chief minister, Syed Masoom Shah, who had earlier entered into plea bargain in a case of possession of illegal assets.
The bench comprising Justice Nisar Hussain and Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth issued notice to National Accountability Bureau, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, for explaining its position and directed that till further order the controversial amount should not be recovered.
The bench issued the order in a writ petition filed by Syed Masoom Shah, who served as special assistant to former chief minister Ameer Haider Hoti, challenging the demand of operational charges by NAB as illegal and against judgments of the superior courts.
An accountability court had on April 28 approved a plea bargain application of Mr Shah on condition of payment of Rs258.75 million to NAB. He was arrested by the NAB on August 11, 2015, on charges of possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income and was subsequently granted bail by the high court on March 22.
Issues notice to NAB to explain its position
Barrister Waqar Ahmad appeared for the petitioner and stated that according to the agreement taken place between the petitioner and NAB, his client had deposited Rs91.75 million as down payment or first instalment, whereas subsequently he had to pay two more instalments of Rs85.387 million and Rs 67.612 million, respectively.
He stated that the petitioner had to pay the third installment till June 30. He added that the third instalment also included an amount of around Rs30 million as operational or incidental charges imposed by NAB.
Barrister Waqar pointed out that the superior courts had already declared the imposition of the operational charges by NAB as illegal. He added that Lahore High Court had first declared the operational charges by NAB as illegal in a case and the said judgment was upheld by Supreme Court of Pakistan.
It is worth mentioning that on February 18 an accountability court had rejected NAB’s application for giving final approval to the plea bargain of Mr Shah, citing several reasons for that.
The said order was challenged by the petitioner as well as by NAB before the high court. The high court had on March 22 granted bail to the petitioner and referred the case back to accountability court for deciding the plea bargain application afresh.
The petitioner had remained nazim of Shabqadar tehsil in Charssada from 2001 to 2004 and subsequently served as special assistant to chief minister during 2010 to 2013 during the coalition government of ANP and PPP in the province.
Earlier, in February this year the high court had declared as illegal the demand of operational cost by NAB from a distant relative of Ameer Haider Hoti, who had made a plea bargain in a high-profile case of receiving kickbacks in procurement of weapons for police department.
In that case, NAB was demanding operational charges to the tune of Rs29.5 million from Raza Ali, brother-in-law of Ameer Haider Hoti’s brother Ghazan Khan.
Raza Ali was arrested by NAB Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in January 2014. He was set free on bail by the high court on January 29, 2015, after he agreed to enter into plea bargain with NAB and to return Rs195 million, which he had received from a private contractor, Arshad Majeed, who was awarded most of the contracts of procurement of weapons and other equipment.
Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2016
http://www
Pedo a vibrant organisation, insists chief
PESHAWAR: Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation CEO Akbar Ayub Khan on Thursday said the Asian Development Bank’s willingness to invest $300 million showed its faith in the entity and that the overwhelming response to its IPPs was enough to prove that it was a vibrant organisation.
“Will the ADB have shown interest in funding our micro projects if it had been a dysfunctional organisation? In fact, the ADB is putting a consortium together to raise $1 billion for the projects. It shows its faith in the work we are doing,” he said, rejecting the allegations of chairman of the Pedo board of directors Shakeel Durrani, whose resignation was accepted by the chief minister on Tuesday, a day before Pedo’s 14th meeting of its BoD was meeting on Wednesday.
In a statement, Mr. Durrani, BoD chairman, dubbed Pedo as a totally incompetent and dysfunctional organisation and said he wanted to order inquiries into the extension of time and additional payment of Rs700 million to contractor and delay in the extension of transmission line to Machai and Ranolia power projects.
The Pedo CEO said no payment had been made to the contractor for his claim for cost escalation on account of delay in the execution of the project and that the organisation was contesting the assertion and was going for arbitration to settle the issue.
“We will go to the last forum available to contest the cost escalation claim,” he said.
He also said Pedo had made payments to NTDC for extension of transmission line to Machai and Ranolia, which together generated 19.6 megawatts of hydel power, and that the delay was on behalf of the federal entity.
“Nevertheless, since Mr. Durrani wanted an inquiry, I had already done so. What was the issue then?”
On the recruitment and exorbitant pay packages, Mr. Akbar said the entire recruitment was done through a human resource committee constituted by the BoD, which also approved the Pedo management structure and pay packages.
He said candidates were interviewed first by the HR committee and later by the entire BoD and made the final selection.
“I was hired after due process. I am surprised that Mr. Durrani has made such an allegation,” he said. The Pedo CEO said the basic problem was that the BoD chairman, a retired bureaucrat and former Wapda chairman, wanted to run the Pedo as a government department.
“He was against turning Pedo into a corporate entity,” Akbar Ayub Khan said. “This was the basic disagreement.” His claims and allegations were untrue, baseless and contrary to facts, he said.
Mr. Khan said five projects initiated by Pedo were at various stages of completion with a total power generating capacity of 214 megawatts, while a project comprising 356 micro hydel power stations was under implementation to provide cheap and off grid electricity to 350,000 people in far flung areas.
He said Pedo was in the process of enhancing the number of micro hydel projects to 1,000 to cater to one million consumers.
He said Pedo was the only organisation in the public sector to developed investor -friendly KP Hydro Power Policy 2016 and associated guidelines in 2016.
He disclosed that Pedo had offered seven projects with a total power generating capacity of 668 megawatts to private sector for investment worth $2 billion and it was for the first time that it had received overwhelming response from 56 companies for pre-qualification.
The CEO alleged that Mr. Durrani interfered in the day to day operations of the organisation and wanted management to comply with his whims including his support for a private solar power company, whose issue was eventually decided in Pedo’s favour by the chairman’s own appointed so-called grievances committee.
“Earlier, Mr. Durrani was a member of the energy apex committee of KP. However, he preferred to be appointed as the chairman of the Pedo Board.
“Having involvement in power sector consultancy and association with Wapda, he had a conflict of interest which was not disclosed at the time of his appointment as the chairman of the Pedo Board,” he said.
The CEO added that the situation became pronounced in relation to recently advertised projects to private sector.
Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1266886/pedo-a-vibrant-organisation-insists-chief
KP’s new budget — unclear priorities, unfair allocations
PESHAWAR: Analysing the provincial budget 2016-17, Umer Asghar Khan Foundation, a civil society organisation, has described it as contrary to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s priorities and based on discrimination. It urged the government to reconsider allocation of funds for the underdeveloped districts on equal basis.
Besides the opposition parties, members of the treasury benches are also unhappy over the unjust distribution of funds, blaming Chief Minister Pervez Khattak for inequitable allocations and have sought help of PTI chairman Imran Khan to ensure transparency.
Speaking at a press conference at Peshawar Press Club on Wednesday, Rashida Dohad, executive director of Umer Asghar Khan Foundation, said that one of the ruling PTI’s much-publicised priorities was an empowered local government to give people in villages and neighbourhoods greater control over development decisions and the delivery of essential social services.
Flanked by another rights activist, Rakhshinda Naaz, she said that despite the passage of an enabling LG law in 2013 and conclusion of local elections in 2014-15, local governments in KP continued to face formidable challenges.
CSO urges govt to review allocations for southern districts
“The allocations show that the promised fiscal decentralisation is yet to benefit local governance. It fails to allocate ‘not less than 30 per cent’ of the total development budget for local government as stipulated in the KP LG Act 2013. Rs33.9 billion allocated for local governments in the districts, tehsils, villages and neighbourhoods is 21.06 per cent of the total development outlay of Rs161 billion,” she said.
Another Rs9.4 billion, she said, was placed under the head of local government, but much of it was already allocated to specific projects. Even if combined, these amounts account for only 26.9 per cent of the total development funds, falling short of the promised 30 per cent.
Allocations for development also appear to mock the stated commitment to equitable opportunities, fair distribution of resources, and, equal rights emblazoned on KP’s budget documents. For example, Rs5.1 billion or 3.22 per cent of the total development funds is allocated for Nowshera, the home district of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, she said.
Rashida Dohad said that the generous amount given only to Nowshera district sharply contrasted with the allocation of only Rs4.47 billion or 2.78 per cent of the total development budget to seven chronically poor southern districts of Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan, Hangu, Karak, Kohat, Lakki Marwat and Tank. The Hazara region consisting of six districts of Abbottabad, Haripur, Battagram, Mansehra, Kohistan and Torghar also fared poorly with a cumulative allocation of only Rs4.54 billion or 2.82 per cent of the total development outlay.
A comparison of current allocations with those made in the preceding year brings the inequities into sharp focus.
Funds for Nowshera show an increase from 3.08 per cent of the total budget in the preceding year to 3.22 per cent in the current fiscal year. On the other hand, seven poor southern districts and six districts in Hazara have endured budget cuts.
The southern districts were allocated 3.2 per cent and Hazara 3.1 per cent of the total development outlay in FY2015-16. These are reduced to 2.78 per cent and 2.82 per cent, respectively, in the current year.
Inequities exist even within regions. While DI Khan with a population of about 850,000 has received Rs1.62 billion, Tank district with an estimated population of 240,000 has been allocated a paltry sum of Rs10 million. Haripur has received Rs2.17 billion while Kohistan – the poorest district in the province whose people have suffered unspeakable devastation from 2010-15 due to a series of natural disasters – is allocated a mere Rs0.17 billion.
The motivation behind public finance decisions clearly justifies the calls for an NFC-type agreement for transparent distribution of development funds from the province to the districts. If such criteria are adopted provincially, the seven southern districts would get 21 per cent or Rs33.81 billion and Hazara’s due share would be 19.4 per cent or Rs31.23 billion.
KP’s total development outlay for FY2016-17 is Rs161 billion. Of this, Rs118.42 billion or a staggering 73.56 per cent are “umbrella” or “block” funds, showing an upward trend from the preceding year in which block allocations accounted for 71 per cent of the development budget.
KP’s budget 2016-17 also exposes some disconnect between funds allocated and stated policy decisions. For example, in March 2016 the KP government prominently advertised its decision to spend Rs8 billion for reconstructing 760 schools destroyed by the 2005 earthquake.
The FY2016-17 budget does not register the increased amount, and continues to show a total of Rs3.7 billion for the reconstruction which was first included in FY2014-15.
Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1266695/kps-new-budget-unclear-priorities-unfair-allocations
Syed Haider Imam
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
June 25 2016
Syed Haider Imam
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
June 26 2016
Syed Haider Imam
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
June 27 2016
Syed Haider Imam
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
June 28 2016
Syed Haider Imam
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
June 29 2016
Syed Haider Imam
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
June 30 2016
Syed Haider Imam
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
July 01 2016
Last edited:
Syed Haider Imam
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
June 30 2016
