PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet on Thursday approved a special allowance for the provincial bureaucracy, likely to amount over Rs460 million annually, according to a report published in Dawn.
The cabinet met with Chief Minister Pervez Khattak in the chair and provincial ministers, chief secretary and administrative secretaries in attendance.
It discussed a 12-point agenda and approved after thorough discussion the draft KP Narcotics Substance Bill, 2017, schedule post allowance for the provincial bureaucracy, procedure for the appointment of government employees as Khuddamul Hujjaj, measures against illegal mining and stone crushing, the chief minister’s directives about the creation of new tehsils, and the status of protected wasteland for the forests of Torghar district.
Various proposals regarding the special allowance for bureaucracy were discussed and the cabinet unanimously decided to allow the scheduled post allowance at 1.5 times of initial basic pay.
An inside official said, “Three options proposing allowance of 1.5, 2 and 2.5 times of the basic pay were put before the cabinet, which chose the lowest one.”
The provincial bureaucracy consisted of 802 officers, including 483 in BPS-17, who will get Rs38,000 per month; 164 in BPS-18, who would get Rs47,165; 90 in BPS-19, who would receive Rs74,055; 51 in BPS-20, who would get Rs86,115, and 13 in BPS-21, who would receive Rs95, 670.
The cabinet also approved hefty sums as senior executive allowance for the chief secretary and inspector general on the pattern of such payment in Punjab.
This move is likely to cost the province’s kitty Rs462.92 million per annum.
The cabinet recently approved upgraded 75,722 employees of various pay scales and regularised the services of 4,743 employees working on 53 projects on contractual basis.
The PMS Officers Association in a statement thanked the chief minister, cabinet, chief secretary and secretary finance for fulfilling their long-standing demands.
A statement issued here said that the cabinet meeting also approved the sharing of responsibility for the investigation and control of narcotics in the province. Under the approved amendments by the cabinet, police, excise and Anti-Narcotics Force would have a combined domain with shared responsibility to investigate and seize narcotics substance including Methamphetamine, ecstasy, weed, marijuana
The cabinet also approved the procedure for the public sector employees as Khuddumul Hujjaj during the Haj phase. The procedure and deputational process will be worked out by the concerned departments.
It approved enhancement in the minimum spending limit from Rs1 million to Rs1.5 million royalty of gas in the producing districts and making of district and tehsil nazims as members of the committee for petroleum social committee. A nominee MPA of the chief minister would be the chairman of the committee.
The chief minister also issued orders for measures to discourage illegal mining in Haripur and Nowshera and regularisation of the whole process of stone crushing.