Govt decides to wind up Pak-PWD

ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet has approved the plan to abolish the Pakistan Public Works Department (Pak-PWD) on the recommendation of the Ministry of Housing and Works.

The meeting of the federal cabinet presided over by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday gave approval for abolishment of the Pak PWD.

According to the plan of action, the Pakistan Infrastructure Development Company would be created that would supervise the federal development projects, while all the provincial development projects under the supervision of the federal government will be handed over to the relevant provincial institutions.

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Similarly, Asset and Facility Management Company will be established to continue the maintenance and repair works assigned to Pak PWD.

The meeting decided that Pak PWD staff subsequent to grading would be transferred to the respective ministries and a ‘Golden Handshake Scheme’ would be introduced, whereas, all the property records of Pak PWDs in the country would be computerised.

The cabinet directed that the transition process should be completed within two weeks.

The cabinet meeting was given a briefing about the progress made so far by the committee constituted under the chairmanship of the finance minister on reducing the size of the federal government.

The meeting was informed that basic information is being obtained regarding the closure of unnecessary subsidiaries of the Ministries of Information Technology, Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan, States and Frontier Regions, Industry and Production, National Health, Services and right-sizing of essential institutions. This process will be completed by July 12, 2024.

The committee on the basis of the information received would formulate proposals in consultation with the concerned ministries and submit them to the cabinet by the first week of August.

Similarly, from July 19, after getting such information from other ministries of the federal government, recommendations will be made to close or merge other institutions.

The federal cabinet also approved the extension of proof of registration (PoR) cards by one year to 30 June 2025 for the 1.45 million Afghan refugees legally residing in the country whose PoR cards have expired on 30 June 2024.

On the recommendation of the Ministry of Housing and Works, the federal cabinet approved the transfer of the building of Federal Lodge No II in Peshawar to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)for office use.

The office of the Provincial Election Commissioner will be established in this building on a permanent basis.

On the recommendation of the Ministry of Law and Justice, the federal cabinet has decided to get seven accountant members from Appellate Tribunal Inland Revenue the benches in the different cities back to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and appointed 14 officers nominated by the ministry on the benches of the Appellate Tribunal Inland Revenue.

The federal cabinet has also approved the appointment of Joint Secretary Muhammad Iqbal as the administrator of the National Council for Homeopathy on the recommendation of the Ministry of Health.

On the recommendation of the Ministry of National Health, the federal cabinet has approved the de-accreditation of Bahawalpur Medical College from April 19, 2024, for not meeting the standards of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) and students studying in this institution will be transferred to other medical colleges of the country. The prime minister inquired as to why Bahawalpur Medical College was allowed by PMDC to continue its educational activities despite being non-standard.

The prime minister also ordered the Prime Minister Inspection Commission (PMIC)P to investigate the matter and also constituted a committee consisting of Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Ahad Cheema, Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Dr Jehanzeb Khan and Prime Minister’s Coordinator for Health Malik Mukhtar Ahmed Bharath regarding PMDC with instruction to present proposals regarding third-party audit of PMDC in the next cabinet meeting.

On the recommendation of the Ministry of Health, the meeting also approved 53 advertisements of the proposed medicines in TV, radio and newspapers in the 17th and 18th meeting of the Committee on Advertisements of the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan.

The appointment of Javed Qureshi as a Director in the Board of Directors of K-Electric on behalf of the government was also approved by the federal cabinet. The prime minister directed that inactive and incomplete boards of directors of all state institutions should be made active by appointing persons with good professional reputation within two weeks.

The meeting approved the decisions taken by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet in its meeting held on June 27, 2024, and Cabinet Committee on July 4, 2024, regarding government-owned enterprises.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024