Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Pervez Khattak has directed to increase the salaries of the provincial government employees. He also asked the health and education sector to come up with viable proposals in the education and health sector for efficent utilisation of provincial budget.
He was addressing a meeting in which final touches were given to different schemes in both, education and health sectors. Provincial Ministers Muhammad Atif Khan, Shahram Khan Tarakai, Chief Secretary Abid Saeed, ACS Muhammad Azam Khan and administrative secretaries also attended the meeting.
Chief Minister said that his government would inject Rs30 billion in education sector and Rs12 billion in health sector because both these sectors were at the top of his government priorities. He said that his government would make highest possible efforts to make huge investment in education and health sectors.
“We want a healthy and educated nation which will contribute towards national development. Our realistic approach and targeted efforts speak volumes about our commitment for the public welfare. We are committed for drastic improvement in health and education sectors and the provision of resources would never become a hindrance,” he said explicitly.
Pervez Khattak with a beaming face recounted his government reforms for improved delivery in social sector and he also told that there was a considerable improvement in the overall law and order situation in the province. He said that he introduced the concept of reward and punishment that yielded positive results. “we are on a fast track towards development,” he said. Khattak warned against half-hearted efforts and flimsy excuses by different public sector institutions. He said that he would not accept below average or average results. The government would take action against the responsible for not achieving the targets, he cautioned.
Pervez Khattak said that the performance graph of the government was up to the mark and would be further improved in the coming days. “We will judge our performance by the level of satisfaction of people instead of statistics,” he said.
The people of this province were bearing the brunt of the ill-conceived policies of the previous governments. The non-developmental expenditures had skyrocketed leaving minimal resources for the development of KP.
He said that his government would never allow increase in taxes as it would over burden the masses. He said his government wanted to maintain strict financial discipline and cut down unnecessary expenditure. He wanted to divert the provincial resources towards the developmental of KP. “We will also ensure transparent utilisation of resources and make sure that the developmental strategy is properly implemented”.
Chief Minister gave policy guidelines regarding the concept of building schools. He said that the planning should be comprehensive in all aspects. He said that this could be done by building schools with complete facilities. He also ordered to officially decrease the proximity of schools for residents. New schools built would not be 1.5 kilometre apart in the hilly areas, instead, they would be half a kilometer apart because the students could not cover long distance on foot.
Pervez Khattak revealed that the new Annual Development Programme (ADP) would have a Women University along with dozens of universities, colleges for both, boys and girls, commerce colleges and public libraries besides up-gradation of three medical colleges, and three civil hospitals that would also include teaching hospitals. He also agreed to the provision of Rs14 billion for the purchase of different equipment for hospitals to be completed by June. He also agreed to the provision of necessary funding for medicines and other healthcare facilities. He directed for the exclusion of Sehat Insaf Card from the ADP, to expand this facility further in order to take the poor in loop for efficient healthcare.
Chief Minister said that this province had suffered because of multiple reasons. “This province is backward, the people are poor and unemployed,” he said. Therefore, he directed different methods to overcome these challenges. He said that his government was responsive and sensitive to all these problems and would let the people know about truth.
