KP cabinet approves amendments to Women Harassment Act

The provincial cabinet of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Tuesday approved amendments in the Women Harassment Act 2010 and allocation of Rs 23 billion for priority projects in the province. The meeting of the provincial cabinet held in Chief Minister's Secretariat with KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak in the chair. Provincial Ministers, Chief Secretary Muhammad Azam Khan, Additional Chief Secretary and administrative secretaries attended the cabinet meeting that took for debate a 16 points agenda and made a number of decisions for improved governance, tackling the governance related issues, the regularization of contract employees recruited through NTS etc.
The Chief Minister in consultation with the provincial cabinet elevated Advisors to Chief Minister Ishtiaq Urmar and Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani to status of the full provincial ministers on their impressive performance in their respective departments. The cabinet directed the Information Department for a comprehensive communications approach in its overall functions with focus on innovative publicity centric mechanism.
The provincial cabinet agreeing to the amendments in the Women Harassment Act 2010 at work places approved the recruitment of an Ombudsperson to address to the genuine grievances of women at work place. This enactment would give protection to the women at work place. The amendment made in the act would be tabled in the provincial assembly for proper legislation. The cabinet also agreed to the regularization of 36278 number of NTS recruited teachers and other employees throughout the province. The regularization of the employees would be made through an act of the provincial assembly.
The Chief Minister agreed to the strengthening of Excise & Taxation department and the cabinet approved the revenue collection through the Excise and Taxation department. The department under the cabinet decision would be empowered to collect Abiana and other revenue. Earlier, the KEPRA had to collect revenue and after the amendment this function would be transferred to the Excise & Taxation department.
The cabinet Okayed additional Rs 23.930 billion for the priority projects of public welfare oriented nature throughout the province that included Rs 4 billion for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Highway Authority, Rs 5 billion for Communication & Works projects, Rs 1030 million for solarization schemes, Rs Two billion for irrigation projects, Rs 1 billion for higher education projects, Rs One billion for secondary education, Rs 2 billion for irrigation, Rs 1.6 billion for electricity related projects and Rs 300 million for Sui gas related projects.
The Chief Minister directed to develop the prime property of Auqaf Department on commercial lines in order to enhance the resource base of the department adding that the whole commercialization process should be a transparent one and the process should be completed on accelerated pace, he added. Pervez Khattak said that the 10% quota of electricity was not acceptable. The share of the province in the whole distribution formula stands as 13.5 and therefore there should be a uniform approach giving the province its due share under the NEPRA laid down formula and justice should be visible under the formula, adding that the people suffered because of unwarranted load shedding. He asked the relevant quarters to collect all details of the electricity related projects bringing them at the proper forum for approval and implementation.
The Chief Minister on the approval of the cabinet of the budgetary provision and transparency in the TMAs accounts under the overall distribution of resources design directed to conduct a meeting of finance, local government and AG office in order to bring visible transparency in the efficient use of resources at lowest tiers of governance.
The Chief Minister came hard on the lethargic attitude of government employees and inaction for the collection of Abiana and other revenue collections. He directed for accelerated plan for the establishment of model police station at Tehsil level and removing the hurdles in the tax collection.
The cabinet also approved the communication policy of the Information Department giving a shift from traditional information gathering mechanism to the overall innovative mechanism including effective use of alternative and new media. The new mechanism would also include publicity on face book, twitter and other forums of social media.
The Information Department should investigate different and innovative approaches for efficient publicity of the pro people initiatives and governance related reforms introduced by the government, he added. The cabinet also directed to finalize the up-gradation of employees of police and other departments and projects and bring a comprehensive case to the next cabinet meeting. The cabinet approved the proposal for Additional Advocate Generals and one Assistant Advocate General. The Chief Minister hoped that a strengthened team of litigation would help the government in preparing logical cases to protect the government's stand point on different issues.