PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf's (PTI) Provincial Minister for Mines and Minerals Ziaullah Afridi was arrested on corruption charges on Thursday following a proceeding by the Ehtesab Commission in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The commission claims that the minister was involved in misuse of power for non-transparent leasing of contracts pertaining to land. The charges against him also include illegal recruitment and transfers allegedly made by the minister.
In another proceeding by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), former minister and secretary for mines and minerals Nawabzada Mehmood Zeb and Shah Wali respectively, Bannu Commissioner Asmatullah Khan along with seven others were arrested in a land leasing scandal.
NAB claims that in 2008, 500 acres of land owned by the Mines and Minerals Department was leased for 33 years for Rs14,000 only. The land was leased in Abbotabad to a woman named Rukhsana in a agreement made by the minister's front man Ehteshaamul Mulk which said that the profits will be shared between the two parties on a 50-50 basis http://www.dawn.com/news/1193390/pti...rrested-by-nab
PESHAWAR: The National Accountability Bureau on Thursday arrested 10 people, including former PPP provincial minister Nawabzada Mehmood Zeb, over the illegal allotment of government reservoirs of phosphate to a schoolteacher and thus, causing Rs360 million loss to the kitty.
The NAB Khyber Pakhtunkhwa alleges that Mahmood Zeb, who was a leader of PPP and was provincial minister for technical education, industries and mineral department in the previous provincial government, in connivance with the other nine suspects had misused his authority in illegal allotment of 500 acres of proven deposit of phosphate to a female school teacher, Rukhsana Javed, who illegally excavated phosphate in collaboration with the first cousin of the minister Ehtishamul Mulk and jointly caused a loss of Rs360 million to the national exchequer.
The other nine arrested suspects are the then secretary technical education and minerals, Shah Wali Khan; the then additional secretary of the department, Asamtullah Khan Ghandapur, presently serving as commissioner Bannu division; a section officer, Farhad Ali; a deputy director of the department, Khan Badshah; a geologist at the directorate of mines and minerals, Nauroze Khan; a senior inspector of mines presently serving as commissioner mines, Ziarat Khan; the then director licensing of minerals department, Shakirullah; an assistant director (litigation) of mineral department, Pervaiz Khan; and an assistant director, Ehtishamul Mulk. The NAB said the inquiry revealed that the Sarhad Development Authority held 1200 acres of phosphate reservoirs under the 1985-2005 mining lease. NAB charges them with being involved in illegal allotment of phosphate reservoirs
The area was surrendered in 2005 and was required to be put through open auction in line with the Mining Concession Rules (MCR) 2005. A woman schoolteacher, Rukhsana Javed, applied for prospecting licence of the land in 2004. However, the application was rejected prompting the woman to go into litigation against the department. The NAB alleges that in 2008, the then minister, Nawabzada Mehmood Zeb, in connivance with other suspects went beyond lawful limits for the unlawful allotment of 500 acres of the area to Rukhsana Javed through prospecting licence. “The minister also issued illegal directives to the relevant officials to process that application despite its rejection by his department as evident from the record.” According to the NAB, the department later made a U-turn and accepted the schoolteacher’s offer to settle the matter and formed an illegal settlement committee for the purpose on the then secretary’s orders. “The committee interestingly recommended 500 acres from the above stated 1200 acres for prospecting license to the schoolteacher in exchange for withdrawal of court cases.” The NAB alleged that in contravention of the rules of business, minister Mehmood Zeb chaired a meeting on Jan 1, 2009, during which the illegal recommendations of the said committee were approved. It added that vested interests of the minister was evident from the fact that even before the approval, the said lease agreement was signed between Rukhsana (the lessee) and Ehtishamul Mulk, front man and cousin of the minister. Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2015 http://www.dawn.com/news/1193576/ex-ppp-minister-among-10-held-for-rs360m-corruption
PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan has said that Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Hospital is the only hospital in the world which treats 75 per cent of the patients free of cost. “The second SKMCH & RC, Peshawar is 20 per cent bigger that SKMCH & RC Lahore and will be equipped with more latest equipment to provide state-of-the-art treatment to the patients from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Federally Administered Tribal Areas as well as Afghanistan,” Imran Khan, chairman Board of Governors SKMCH & RC told participants of an Iftar dinner here on Thursday. The PTI chief, who raised Rs50 million donations at the Iftar dinner, said that there was no difference between the poor and rich patients and all the paid and unpaid patients had equal access to treatment. “The Peshawar hospital will be a model institution in Pakistan as we have been able to build it in a more sophisticated way that SKMCH & RC Lahore,” he added. Mr Khan said that they spend Rs7 billion on the free treatment of patients at the hospital and raised half of the amount from Zakat and donations while the rest was raised from the fee paid by rich patients and other revenues generated by the hospital. He said that 25 per cent of the cancer patients at SKMCH Lahore belonged to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata who couldn’t afford the costly treatment. He said that the cost of treatment of per patient was about Rs1.2 million which was out of the reach of most of the patients. “The Peshawar hospital, to be opened in January 2016, will be offering free facilities to the poor patients. The people, who currently visit Lahore for treatment, would be able to get the same facilities here,” he said. Mr Khan said that it was wrong that he had given warnings to the doctors in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but said that his government had decided to bring the much-needed reforms in health sector and nobody would be allowed to block his way. “A small number of doctors don’t want to change status quo but I assure that my party will change the healthcare system for the benefit of the people. We have decided to improve patients’ care and there will be no looking back in this regard,” he said. Mr Khan said that they held doctors, nurses and other medical staff in high esteem and would never disrespect them. More than 500,000 patients visited Khyber Pakhtunkhwa hospitals everyday to seek treatment and it was the prime responsibility of the government to give them quality treatment, he said. “We are ready to accept the challenge posed by the small portion of doctors’ mafia. They cannot blackmail us through strikes and protests,” he said. The chief executive of SKMCH & RC, Dr Faisal Sultan, on the occasion gave a presentation regarding the patients’ statistics and revenues and appreciated people of the country for generous donations to ensure their mission of free medication. “We spend Zakat money only for the treatment of the patients while donations are spent on the buildings and equipment,” he said. Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2015 http://www.dawn.com/news/1193580/imran-raises-rs50-million-donations-for-hospital-at-iftar
PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf did better than other political parties in the May 30 local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by winning 256 of the total of 978 district council seats. The ruling party was followed by the Awami National Party with 106 district council seats. Official poll results compiled by the Election Commission of Pakistan on Thursday show the PTI led in eight of the 24 districts, including Peshawar. It won majority of the district council seats in Peshawar, Nowshera, Kohat, Abbottabad, Haripur, Malakand, Dera Ismail Khan and Tank. The PTI and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz secured 20 seats each in Swat district. Bags 256 of total 978 district council seats; ANP second best with 106 seats
The PTI won 42 seats in Peshawar, 13 in Nowshera, 10 in Kohat, 20 in Abbottabad, 24 in Haripur, 9 in Malakand, 15 in Dera Ismail Khan and six in Tank. The ECP statement said the ANP clinched most district council seats in Charsadda, Mardan, Swabi, Buner and Torghar. The ANP apparently regained lost ground in central districts like Swabi, Mardan and Charsadda. As for party position, PTI won 256 seats, ANP 106, JUI-F 105, PML-N 87, JI 71, PPP 43, QWP 12, All Pakistan Muslim League two, Awami Jamhoori Ittehad Pakistan seven, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party and Pakistan Rah-i-Haq Party one each, and independents 1,165. The ECP had ordered re-polling on 122 seats. The ECP conducted local government elections on May 30, which were considered the most controversial electoral exercise in the history of the province. More than 20 people were killed and around 200 injured in election-related violence. Major opposition and coalition partners accused the PTI of manipulating results. Jamaat-i-Islami, coalition partner of PTI, emerged as the leading party in two districts of Malakand division. It won 23 seats in Lower Dir and 22 in Upper Dir. Both districts are considered the party’s stronghold. The JUI-F emerged as the winner in Lakki Marwat, Bannu and Hangu. Both the JUI-F and JI won six seats each in Chitral district. The JUI-F has a very good chance of forming government in Lakki Marwat and Bannu districts. According to the official statement, the PML-N secured majority seats in Mansehra and Shangla districts. The PTI outdid the PML-N in Abbottabad and Haripur districts of Hazara region, which are considered the PML-N strongholds. The PPP failed to win majority of seats in any district. It got a total of 43 seats, including eight in Malakand. The QWP won a total of 12 seats, while the AJIP, coalition partner of the ruling PTI, secured seven seats. According to official results, the ANP won 11 of the total of 49 district council seats in Charsadda. It was followed by the QWP with eight seats. Similarly, the ANP won 20 of the total of 75 seats in Mardan, while PTI bagged 19 seats. In Swabi district, the ANP emerged the single largest party by getting 18 of the total of 56 district council seats. The political parties have busy negotiating with each other to form district governments. Also, independent candidates are being lured to join political parties. The PTI has good prospects of forming governments in majority of districts as large numbers of independents are joining it. Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2015 http://www.dawn.com/news/1193582/pti-outdoes-other-parties-in-kp-local-body-polls
TIMERGARA: A local contractor has blamed the executive engineer and a sub-engineer of communication and works department for embezzling funds worth billions of rupees. Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Haji Karim Khan of Talash demanded of the provincial government and National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to launch inquiry against both the officials. He alleged that executive engineer Rehmat Hakim and sub-engineer Rasool Khan of communication and works department, Timergara division were involved in massive corruption. He said that the sub-engineer was not returning his Rs520,000 loan. “When I demanded the amount back, the sub-engineer told me to adjust the same in Odigram by-pass road project,” the contractor alleged. He said that he had witnesses about the corruption made by the sub engineer and the executive engineer. Contractor demands of authorities to launch inquiry against them
Haji Karim said that he had written several complaints to the authorities concerned against the embezzlement made by both the officials. He said that both the officials had made assets worth billions of rupees through illegal means and misuse of powers. The contractor demanded of the authorities to take notice of the matter and conduct proper inquiry against both the officials. He said that provincial government should take appropriate action against the officials as it was making tall claims about uprooting corruption. The executive engineer could not be contacted for his comment as he was on leave on Thursday and his mobile phone was switched off. PROTEST: The residents of Khall held a protest rally against police for their failure to arrest killers of a young man identified as Fazlullah. The protesters, including women and children, blocked the road for some time in front of Khall police station. They alleged that the killers of the young man had taken refuge in a nearby house but police were doing nothing to arrest them. The protesters threatened to continue their protest till the arrest of the killers. They set a three-day deadline for the police to arrest the killers. Meanwhile, a 15-year-old boy identified as Shahid was killed when a vehicle ran over him on Sheena Road in Samar Bagh on Thursday. Sources said that the boy was transporting cement blocks when he lost balance and fell from his vehicle. They said the vehicle driven by Salimur Rehman ran over him. He was killed on the spot. Police registered a case against the driver on the report of deceased’s uncle and arrested him. Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2015 http://www.dawn.com/news/1193570/cw-officials-accused-of-corruption
PESHAWAR: The Ehtesab (Accountability) Commission, set up by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has started showing its teeth but the committee set up to ensure discipline and accountability within the party is almost dead. The Ehtesab Commission arrested Ziaullah Afridi, a sitting minister of PTI, on Thursday but the party has not taken any action on a number of cases reported to its chairman Imran Khan by the party’s very own Standing Committee on Accountability and Discipline (SCAD). The committee, which was symbolic of what the PTI claims to stands for ‘Insaf’ through accountability, is itself facing tough resistance from the status qou elements within the party, sources say. The SCAD, which includes Salim Jan as convener and Zahid Hussain, Jahangir Rehman, Riaz Basher and Ijaz Minhas as members, is fighting for its survival. PTI committee meant for internal accountability fighting for survival
On June 17, the membership of the five-member committee was suspended and it was issued show-cause notice. The notice issued to committee said that since it was constituted for a specific and limited time period and stood dissolved and ceased to exist with effect from April 17, 2015. However, in complete contravention of the officially constituted (now dissolved) SCAD, you have then proceeded to issue unilateral judgments regarding senior party leaders. In view of the contraventions of party directives, the notice says, you are hereby suspended with immediate effect from party membership and served show-cause notice. Salim Jan, the convener of the committee, a retired banker hailing from a prestigious family of Peshawar City, who has maternal ties with Bacha Khan’s (Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan) family, has also been served a notice. Salim Jan was not available for comment but party insiders say that SCAD members have been holding their ground and waiting to be heard by the party chairman Imran Khan. The SCAD members had been sticking to the fact that when a year ago the committee was formed it was not given any limited time period and instead it was a perpetual committee to ensure accountability and discipline within the party. Sources say that SCAD was apparently dissolved and served show-cause notices for pointing out and taking action against three members of the party for selling party tickets in the last Cantonment Board elections. A show-cause notice was also issued to the election tribunal of the party when it pointed out some senior party leaders for interfering in judicial process and involvement in poll rigging. Sources say that such bodies working to ensure accountability and pointing out black sheep were dissolved instead of implementing their decisions. However, the final decision whether SCAD stays or is dissolved will be made once the members have a chance of hearing before the Khan of the party. There are speculations that those senior party leaders against whom these bodies had given their decisions outsmart their move by proving them no more functional. Moreover, they were also able to get them served with show-cause notice for contravention and maligning the senior party leaders. Sources close to PTI say whether the party retains its essence by reinstating and empowering SCAD or put an end to it would decide whether the party is still following the ideology of change and bringing accountability for which it was voted to power in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa or just following the status quo. Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2015 http://www.dawn.com/news/1193573/the-accountability-within
PESHAWAR: Former chief executive of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco), Pervez Akhtar Shah was arrested by the National Accountability Burueau (NAB) Saturday for alleged corruption charges related to accumulation of assets and ill-gotten properties, sources said.
The former Pesco chief was arrested for alleged accumulation of assets and ill-gotten properties, sources said. He was presented in an accountability court where he was sent on a 12-day physical remand under NAB's custody.
An inquiry into his case reveals that during his service in Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) from 1978 to 2015, Shah illegally acquired plots at various locations in Peshawar, sources said. Furthermore, the inquiry revealed that Shah accumulated 10 valuable plots worth millions in a number of locations in Islamabad and surrounding areas. He also procured plots in Wapda Employees Co-operative Housing Society in Nowshera.
Sources also mentioned that Shah purchased two kanal, 18 marla land in Peshawar and constructed a house worth Rs50 million. He also owns two apartments in Islamabad worth Rs30 million and large transactions in bank accounts in the United Kingdom as well as local banks. Furthermore, Shah procured vehicles worth millions of rupees.
Records pertaining to Shah's properties and bank account were recovered during a house search.
Also read: Pesco chief engineer arrested for graft Earlier, Shah was arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency Jan 13 this year — while he was the acting Pesco chief — on the charge of receiving bribe for the supply of electricity to Afghan refugee camps in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at concessional rate. He was later released due to lack of evidence in favour of his charges. http://www.dawn.com/news/1193805/former-pesco-chief-arrested-by-nab [h=1][/h]
The KP provincial government’s ambitious Green Growth Ini*tiative plans to harness the environment for development and uplift.
A few years ago, as we drove up to Besham on the Karakoram Highway, I was horrified to see piles upon piles of timber lining the road in Kohistan. They must have slaughtered an entire forest to get so many tree trunks, which appeared to be Deodar wood — it takes almost 100 years for a Deodar tree to mature, so the carnage was outrageous. There must have been over 100,000 felled trees lined up along the road. The locals claimed that these trees were cut back in the 1990s, before the ban on logging was enforced in Khyber Pakthunkhwa (KP). The good news is that the KP government has now taken over all this wood lying on the Karakoram Highway. They have apparently also moved against the timber mafia in KP, restricting their movement and catching hold of a lot of illicit timber (mostly from Kohistan). The timber, valued at Rs7 or 8 billion, will be sold by the KP government and the funds will be invested into forestry. See: Govt plans to bring 6pc more area under forest cover
“Imran Khan himself visited these areas in a helicopter. In Mansehra, where many trees have also been illegally cut, he fired officials in the forest department from the conservator of forests down to the lower staff and filed cases against them,” explains Malik Amin Aslam, the architect of the PTI’s Green Growth Initiative and global vice-president of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The provincial government’s ambitious Green Growth Initiative plans to harness the environment for development and uplift
Aslam, who was also recently appointed an advisor on environment to the PTI chief, claims that timber permits cannot be acquired in KP anymore.
“We have a two-pronged strategy in KP now — the timber mafia won’t be tolerated and we will plant more trees and send a positive message to our youth,” he says.
Spearheaded by the current KP government, the Green Growth Initiative is a unique endeavour in Pakistan and has given birth to a stream of projects, which include the “Billion Tree Tsunami,” the installation of small hydel projects in the province, and an overhaul of its national parks. Later, the initiative plans to tackle rivers by cleaning them up. The “Billion Tree Tsunami” got off to a slow start, as there were not enough nurseries in place to produce the tree saplings. Today, the nurseries are doing well — they are privately owned, mostly by women at the village level who are growing nurseries of around 25,000 plants, from which they earn around Rs10,000 to 18,000 per month. “Last year, around 20 million saplings were planted and we monitored them for their survival rates. We have found a 90 per cent survival rate from last year. With the monsoon coming now, our targets are higher; this winter’s target is six times more than last winter,” explains Malik Amin.
Look through: Shortage of funds, saplings hit PTI’s afforestation drive
The model has been so successful that they have got it registered under the international Bonn challenge, which is a global voluntary agreement by various countries to set forestry targets for themselves under the United National Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Countries like Brazil, USA and Peru are all part of this challenge and now KP has become the first sub-national entity to enter into this agreement. The IUCN President visited Pakistan two weeks ago to give a letter of acceptance to the KP government for being part of the Bonn challenge.
“This is exactly what needs to happen — by planting trees in Mardan, we are getting global recognition and potential funding in the future. Right now the Billion Tree Tsunami is funded by the KP government,” says Malik Amin. Under the Green Growth Initiative, 256 small hydel projects of various sizes are also being built — 50 projects are at the commissioning stage, others still at the bidding stage. The goal is to complete them all in two years time; they are mostly off-grid and the electricity is to be used in the local areas. The Green Growth Initiative also focuses on national parks; the KP government has passed new legislation, which hands over the six national parks in KP to public-private boards. “Now, the parks’ management can directly access funds and doesn’t have to go through government machinery; every national park will have its own community conservation board. The local wildlife head will be on this board along with local NGOs and the district administration. The conservation boards will be given funds and the authority to spend on the parks.”
Also read: How many of Pakistan's 15 million Facebook users will plant a tree?
The KP government also wants to increase the number of national parks to 12 and studies are in process. They hope to include the Pallas Valley in Kohistan, which is a thickly forested area of the country from where the timber on the Karakoram Highway was cut.
By 2018, Malik Amin claims KP can potentially achieve zero carbon growth — “Most of our electricity will come from hydro projects; we also have the largest forests in Pakistan and we plan on increasing the forest cover.” This is not just talk, he argues, as they have already started action on their Green Growth Initiative and have self-financed it (without help from donors).
“If there was green thinking amongst the other parties and if it would get embedded in the political movement, then there would be a strong impetus to get these things done,” he says.
With a forest cover of less than four per cent in Pakistan, it is heartening to learn that at least one province is taking action to green itself; let’s see some green thinking in the other provincial governments as well. With everyone in the world now talking about a “sustainable future,” it is time they also got with the programme. Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, July 12th, 2015 http://www.dawn.com/news/1193975
PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf MPAs have rebuffed the allegations of Provincial Minister for Mines and Minerals Ziaulllah Afridi that he was arrested by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission at the behest of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak. Speaking at a joint press conference at Peshawar Press Club on Saturday, MPAs Yaseen Khalil, Haji Fazl Ilahi, Ms Zareen Zia, Haji Jahan Dad Khan and Mehmood Jan and other leaders said that the Ehtesab Commission was established as per the vision of party chairman Imran Khan to work for elimination of corruption without any fear and favour. Mr Khalil said that corruption-free Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was the motto of PTI-led provincial government and as such there was no room for corrupt elements in PTI. He said that those facing the charges of corruption would have to clear their names or face the law. He said that the Estehab Commission was fully independent and autonomous body, which enjoyed full powers as per defined rules. He said that the provincial assembly had unanimously passed the law for establishment of the commission. Mr Khalil also accused Ziaullah Afridi of indulging in corrupt practices and illegal transfers of officials at the Mines and Mineral Development Department. He said that on the one hand the minister had imposed ban on work in the mines, on the other illegal excavations were in progress which caused huge losses to the national exchequer. He said that several matters, including transfers and sacking of officials, and supply from Mamakhel mines in Nowshera and New Phosphate mines in Abbottabad during the ban were on record and thus the minister needed to clarify his position in this regard. Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2015 http://www.dawn.com/news/1193934/pti-lawmakers-back-cm-in-ziaullah-case
PESHAWAR: Due to pressure and threats from influential groups, the administration of Gomal University, Dera Ismail Khan, couldn’t undo the appointment of around 200 teachers and administrative staff made in violation of merit by the vice-chancellors in the previous eight years, according to sources. They said that a high-level probe committee of the Higher Education Department (HED) had declared as questionable and dubious the entire selection process of around 200 teachers and administrative staff from grade-18 to grade-21 by the selection board and syndicate. Take a look: Governor okays action over illegal university appointments The committee in its report, submitted to the governor over five months ago, had recommended to the authorities concerned to declare the appointments null and void and that the case may be referred to the competent authority for initiating disciplinary action. The chief secretary had formed the enquiry committee on February 6, 2014 when reports emerged about financial crisis in the university at a time when it was unable to pay salaries to the employees. Despite a lapse of over five months, there is no sign that the committee’s recommendation regarding the appointments would be implemented. Certain other recommendations, including ban on fresh appointments, abolition of additional positions, etc have been implemented, the sources said. About 200 teachers and administrative staff were appointed in violation of merit
They said that Governor Sardar Mahtab Ahmad Khan, who is also chancellor of the university, had also approved the report and ordered implementation of its recommendations. They said that the HED had directed the administration of Gomal University time and again to devise a work plan for implementation of the recommendations of the inquiry committee. However, they said, the university had so far not prepared any workable plan, which had been causing delay in taking legal action against the teachers appointed in violation of merit. “The university administration shared a work plan with HED, but that was turned down by it because there were so many flaws in it,” an official in HED told Dawn. They official added that HED had asked the university administration to inform it when and how the recommendations would be implemented. However, the sources said that there were little chances of implementation of the probe committee’s recommendations for various reasons like presence of strong political groups among the teachers. The VC has been feeling the pressure from such groups and avoiding taking disciplinary action, they said. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission and National Accountability Bureau were also probing irregularities in the Gomal University on their own level, the sources said. When contacted, a senior official in the administration of Gomal University told Dawn that the disciplinary action against the teachers appointed in violation of merit was impossible. “No one can undo the teachers’ appointments,” he said. The official, who has been working on an important position, said: “There are mafias in the university and all are bent on destroying the university for their personnel benefits.” It is a major dilemma that all the vested interest groups of employees get united against any person who want to streamline affairs of the university, he said. “The vested interest groups put pressure on the university administration to launch protests if any disciplinary action is taken. Such groups even issue direct threats to the VC,” he said. Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2015 http://www.dawn.com/news/1193937/gomal-varsity-fails-to-undo-illegal-appointments
KOHAT: The Kohat police on Saturday seized 108 kilograms of hashish being smuggled from Orakzai Agency to Punjab. The hashish recovered valued at Rs12 million in the wholesale market in Fata, whose price almost tripled in Punjab, and increased more than six times in the international market, police said. DSP headquarters, Abdur Rasheed Khan, told reporters the police signaled a vehicle at Marai Chowk to stop for checking. On search, the police found 108 kilograms hashish hidden in secret cavities of the vehicle. The police arrested the accused, Abdul Wahid, resident of Khyber Agency, and shifted him to Ustarzai police station. The police official said Kohat used to be the transit route to smuggle arms and drugs to down country. Smugglers also use Indus River to cross into Punjab in launches. In recent past, the police have recovered huge quantity of drugs and arrested smugglers belonging to Kurram, Orakzai, Khyber Agencies, Dera Ismail Khan, Peshawar and Bannu. Mr Rasheed Khan said coordinated efforts were being made to curb the smuggling. Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2015 http://www.dawn.com/news/1193944/over-100kg-hashish-seized-in-kohat
After several twists and turns in the much-publicised weapons procurement scam, the accountability court finally indicted former provincial police officer (PPO) Malik Naveed Khan and a budget officer of police department Javed Khan on July 7. Both have been accused of receiving kickbacks from a private contractor
Arshid Majeed for awarding him lucrative contracts during procurement of weapons and other equipment for the police department in 2009-10, thus inflicting a loss of over Rs2 billion to the exchequer. 4
While Malik Naveed was arrested in Nov 2013, the National Accountability Bureau, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, had filed a reference against 10 persons in March 2014. Due to different developments the charge could not be framed in the case for over a year. The central character of the scam, Arshid Majeed, was arrested by NAB on Feb 21, 2013 but then released on bail by the Peshawar High Court after he agreed to return Rs102 million. NAB claims that Arshid Majeed has turned approver in the case. The main piece of evidence with the prosecution in the case is the statement of Arshid Majeed which he had recorded on May 25, 2013 before a judicial magistrate under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. In that statement he had made allegations regarding payments of over Rs1 billion to several people, including Malik Naveed, as kickbacks for awarding lucrative contracts and cover-up of the issue. Arshid Majeed had alleged that he had paid Rs360 million to ex-IGP Naveed in three installments and had also bought nine air-conditioning units for his personal residence. He further alleged that he had paid about Rs420 million in cash to Javed Khan for assistance in preparation of the tender document, using influence in approving the bids, arranging funds and making advance payments. He also alleged that he was told by Malik Naveed that he (Arshid) would pay Rs200 million to one Amir Ghazan Khan, brother of ex-chief minister Amir Haider Hoti. He claimed that he had paid Rs195 million to Raza Ali, the brother-in-law of Amir Ghazan Khan. The 10 persons charged in the reference by NAB are: Malik Naveed, Javed Khan, Amir Ghazan Khan, Raza Ali, ex-commandant of Frontier Constabulary Abdul Majeed Marwat, ex-additional IGP Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Abdul Latif Gandapur, DIG Central Police Office Sajid Ali Khan, then DIG Headquarters, Peshawar, Mohammad Suleman, then AIG (establishment) at CPO, Peshawar, Kashif Alam, and then DIG (telecommunication) Sadiq Kamal Orakzai. Interesting development took place in the case when Raza Ali entered into the plea bargain with NAB on the condition of paying Rs224.25 million to the bureau. He claimed that the amount received by him from Arshid Majeed was not paid to Amir Ghazan. On the same ground, an accountability court on May 16, 2015 acquitted Amir Ghazan who was behind bars since April 2014 after his pre-arrest bail was dismissed by the high court. The indictment of the two accused persons got delayed mainly because of the controversy over the non-summoning of the other six police officials mentioned in the reference by the accountability court, observing that the role of those officials was not clearly explained in the reference. The NAB continued to move between the trial court (accountability court) and the high court for many months, filing different applications so that the six officials should be summoned for indictment. It lost the legal battle before the accountability court as well as the high court and has now filed an appeal before the Supreme Court. Initially, when the accountability court declined to summon the six officers the NAB filed a writ petition before the high court, which was dismissed on Sept 11, 2014. The high court observed that an application of NAB had already been pending before the accountability court in that regard. The accountability court stuck to its earlier order and dismissed the said application on Nov 22, 2014. The bureau again filed a writ petition before the high court which was subsequently dismissed on March 26, 2015. Interestingly, instead of filing an appeal before the Supreme Court the NAB filed a review petition before the high court which was also dismissed on June 4. The NAB again filed an application with the trial court, stating that in the light of a judgment of the Supreme Court the un-arrested six officials could be summoned by the court. However, the court could not be convinced and it returned the application observing that it had no force. In the seven-page charge sheet framed by the court, Malik Naveed is accused of illegally processing and approving award of contracts of SMG (semi-automatic machinegun), heavy weapons, bulletproof jackets and night vision goggles with mala fide intentions to accommodate Arshid Majeed. Apart from several other charges he is also accused of illegally approving the advance payment of Rs189 million though the director general of the Project Coordination Unit had clearly mentioned the unavailability of sufficient funds under the relevant head. Keeping in view the media attention received by this scam, the prosecution will be under pressure to prove the case. The prosecution has to put forward irrefutable evidence to corroborate the charges made against the accused persons. Published in Dawn ,July 13th, 2015 http://www.dawn.com/news/1194142/vi...harge-finally-framed-in-weapons-purchase-scam
TIMERGARA: The Medical Emergency Relief International (Merlin), an international non-governmental health charity, has planned to establish a model basic health unit (BHUs) in each of the four tehsils of Dir Lower. Talking to local journalists here on Sunday, Merlin district team leader Dr Irshad Ali Roghani said that the proposed BHUs at Zaimdara Maidan, Banda Talash, Khadagzai Adenzai and Tangi Payeen Samar Bagh would provide quality preventive and curative services to people in accordance with minimum health services delivery package (MHSDP) devised by the provincial government. “Each of these BHUs will be run by a qualified medical officer. It will provide standard services including general OPD, health promotion services, treatment of minor traumas, immunisation, antenatal, natal and post natal care,” the Merlin team leader said. Merlin official says local people will be provided with quality services
He said that Merlin wanted to revitalise health system in the district to meet the demands of local people regarding their health needs. He said that the organisation had established a system in the district to ensure availability of essential drugs and staff. Merlin has been working in health sector in Dir Lower since May, 2014. Besides appointment of 90 doctors including 22 specialists and four gynaecologists, Merlin has so far distributed free medicines worth Rs400 million among the hospitals of the district. Dr Irshad said that the organisation was also engaged in minor repair and renovation of the hospitals. Recently Merlin has provided water to 17 hospitals of the district. POLICE: The policeman on security duty with VIPs in Dir Lower would be sent back to police stations, sources said. They said that scores of regular and special police officials of 13 police stations in Dir Lower were performing security duty with MNAs, MPAs and district and tehsil councilors. The inspector general of police recently issued special directives to all district police officers to call back the officials, who were on duty with VIPs. It would also resolve the issue of shortage of staff at police stations to some extent, sources said. They added that majority of those officials were drawing their monthly salaries at homes without performing any duty. Published in Dawn ,July 13th, 2015 http://www.dawn.com/news/1194138/four-model-health-units-to-be-set-up-in-dir
MANSEHRA: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan on Monday said his party’s government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was set to introduce a new law to eliminate corruption from the province. “We have zero tolerance for corruption and will soon introduce a whistle-blower reward law in the province under which informants from within the staff will identify corruption in government departments and get 30 percent of the recovered money,” Imran told reporters after planting a sapling in Nawasher area here to inaugurate the monsoon tree plantation campaign. Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, Senator Azam Khan Swati and Hazara police DIG Akhtar Hayat Khan Gandapur were also present on the occasion. The PTI chief and the chief minister visited nurseries and seedling areas in the reserved mountainous forests in Nawasher area. [h=4]PTI chief says govt committed to freeing KP of corruption[/h]They also attended a briefing on the ‘tsunami billion tree plantation programme’ launched in the province last year. Imran Khan said the provincial government launched the tree plantation programme to bring about a green revolution in the province. “Through this green revolutionary programme, we will not only plant over one billion saplings in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in a stipulated period but will also create 500,000 jobs for local residents,” he said. The PTI chairman said during the last one decade and so, the forests and trees of Rs300 billion were illegally cut in the province. “We will recover a huge sum of money plundered by timber smugglers not only through the provincial accountability body but also through the upcoming whistle-blower law. This will turn out to be a highly effective step against corruption,” he said. Imran Khan said the provincial government was also going to launch ‘adopt forests programme’ in collaboration with the private sector. “Lately, two affluent people donated Rs2 million, which has already been invested in the launch of that programme,” he said. The PTI chairman said under the ‘adopt forests programme’, the entire province would be divided into areas of 5,000 kanals each and that two custodians would be hired to take care of each of them. “Our main objective is to bring more and more land under frosts and one should be there as custodian to protect plantation from animal grazing,” he said. On the occasion, Dr Faizul Bari, the project director of the billion trees forestation programme, said 700 million trees would be planted in the province, while the rest would be induced through natural phenomena regenerations. “Besides planting one billion trees under the programme, an area of 10 million hectres will also be brought under forestation. This will increase forest cover in the province,” he said. Dr Faizul Bari said under the four years forestation programme, which was launched In November 2014, a total of 18 million saplings had been planted. He said 250 million trees would be planted in 2015, 150 million in 2016 and 182 million in 2017. Dr Faizul Bari also said 200 million seedlings would be provided to farmers free of charge for use as fuel wood. He said 20.8 million seedlings had so far been raised in Mansehra district and 9.6 million of them were grown in private nurseries. Dr Faizul Bari said 386 men had been provided with permanent business of nursery growing, while around 2500 people had been engaged as labourers by forest department for that project. Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2015 http://www.dawn.com/news/1194393/whistle-blower-reward-law-on-the-anvil-says-imran
[h=1]Specialist doctors agree to start institution-based practice[/h]PESHAWAR: More than 80 specialist doctors have agreed to start institution-based practice (IBP) in line with Medical Teaching Institution Act, 2015 at Khyber Teaching Hospital, according to official sources. Dr Nekdad Afridi, director human resources and focal person for MTI at KTH, told Dawn that 62.4 per cent doctors opted for IBP under the new law. He said that initially they faced a lot of problems in obtaining the consent of the doctors because there was an element of fear among them that the new system would harm them but after several meetings they agreed to adopt the new system. Unlike the private medical centres where patients went to different places for investigations, they would get the services under the same roof, Dr Afridi said. “We have requested the government to take measures for starting IBP at the hospital because we are fully ready for it,” he added. [h=4]KTH becomes first teaching hospital to implement the new law[/h]The doctors, who have opted to accept MTI, include professors, associate professors, assistant professors, senior registrars and others with postgraduate qualification. Khyber Teaching Hospital has become the first one of the four teaching hospitals where the PTI-led government has implemented the new law, passed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly early this year. The government has asked the employees of KTH, Lady Reading Hospital and Hayatabad Medical Complex Peshawar and Ayub Teaching Hospital Abbottabad to opt for becoming institutional employees by giving up their status as civil servants by mid July. The remaining three hospitals are yet to obtain consent of their employees while KTH informed the health secretary about its progress with regard to option of its employees on Monday. KTH had requested the government to take urgent measures and start IBP at the hospital. The doctors, who have opted to start IBP at the hospital, include surgeons, physicians, chest and TB specialists, anesthetists, pathologists, cardiologists, mycologists, dermatologists and psychiatrists. KTH and its affiliated Khyber College of Dentistry has about 2,200 employees, half of whom are institutional employees because they had been recruited after 2,000 when the hospital became autonomous while the rest are civil servants, who were appointed before 2,000 or were transferred there from the directorate of health Peshawar. Most of the teaching staffers are employees of the institution who have no problem in accepting the new law by which they would be required to stay there for rest of their services. However, the civil savants are hesitant to become institutional employees because they are unsure about their future. The health department officials term it a big success that professors, associate and assistant professors have agreed to start institution-based practice at the hospital. These doctors would do their private practices in evening at the hospital for which they would be paid Rs12,500 per day while the hospital would be able to raise amount from the diagnostic and other services to be provided at the investigative sections. The health department officials, meanwhile, told Dawn that those, who agreed to become part of IBP, would stop their private practice and would only concentrate on KTH. The hospital had vast infrastructure to cope with number of patients in IBP in evening and offer all kinds of clinical as well as investigative services to the patients, the officials said. Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2015 http://www.dawn.com/news/1194392/specialist-doctors-agree-to-start-institution-based-practice
[h=1]Alleged target killer arrested in Peshawar[/h]PESHAWAR: The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) on Monday claimed to have arrested an alleged target killer. A statement issued here said the outlaw identified as Amanullah of Bara area of Khyber Agency and belonging to a militant outfit, had killed two women in limits of Hashtanagri police station in 2013. CTD officials said Amanullah was said to be a member of a Khyber-based militant outfit. The officials said the outlaw told investigators that he murdered the two women after they refused prostitution. They said that the accused was shifted to an undisclosed location for further interrogation. Rubina and Qaisara were murdered when an unknown attacker opened fire upon them near Firdous Chowk on the GT Road on November 21, 2013. The attacker had managed to escape the scene. Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2015 http://www.dawn.com/news/1194395/alleged-target-killer-arrested-in-peshawar
[h=1]Two KP universities refuse audit[/h]PESHAWAR: Two major public sector universities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have refused to allow the provincial government to conduct their financial and academic audit despite having a provision in the law, according to sources. They said that actually Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan (AWKUM) and University of Swat were violating Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Universities Act, 2012 while Swabi University was adopting delaying tactics in allowing the audit firm, hired by the government for conducting financial and academic audit of the public sector universities. Sources said that the administration of AWKUM refused to cooperate and share documents with the audit firm. The higher education department verbally and through several letters communicated with the AWKUM’s administration to cooperate with the audit firm but in vain, they added. The administration of both the universities -- AWKUM and Swat University -- argued that higher education department had no power to conduct financial and academic audit. Both the universities termed it intervention in their affairs. [h=4]Sources say Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan and University of Swat are violating law by not allowing audit[/h]The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Universities Act, 2012 states that provincial government shall have the power to carry out financial and performance audit of all activities carried out by the universities out of the funds provided by national and provincial exchequer grants and loans whether local or foreign, in such a manner, as deemed appropriate. Sources said that the audit would have started a year ago but the administration of the universities opposed it on the ground that there was no provision in the law to conduct audit by higher education department. The vice-chancellors were not happy with the audit because it would expose their performance, they said. For this purpose, the provincial government incorporated amendments in the Act, empowering higher education department to conduct performance audit of the public sector universities. The administration of AWKUM has sent a two-page letter to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan, who is also chancellor of the university, to seek his guidance in this regard. Reservations have also been shown over the intentions of higher education department about launching of performance audit. A senior official at AWKUM, when contacted, said that the process of hiring audit firm was launched in 2014 while the relevant law empowered the higher education department in 2015 to conduct audit of the universities. The law states that it shall be implemented with immediate effect while higher education department has commenced its implementation from the retrospective effect, according to sources. The official said that Higher Education Commission could be the best forum to evaluate performance of the universities. The administration of University of Swat has communicated through a letter to higher education department that the relevant law which empowers it to conduct performance audit has not been extended to Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (Pata). However, sources in higher education department told Dawn they had asked the home department to extend the Act to Pata immediately. The higher education department has hired Deloitte Pakistan, an audit firm, for the performance evaluation of the public sector universities. Besides huge funding by the Higher Education Commission, the provincial government has also given around Rs20 billion to the government universities since 2007. “Through academic and financial audit, the higher education department wants to know whether the given amount was utilised properly or not. If utilised then the intended purpose was achieved or not,” sources said. The process of performance audit worried several vice-chancellors of the public sector universities, they added. Initially eight universities would face the academic and financial audit including Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, University of Swabi, Bacha Khan University Charsadda, University of Swat, University of Peshawar, Khushal Khan Khattak University Karak, Hazara University Mansehra and Haripur University. Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2015 http://www.dawn.com/news/1194399/two-kp-universities-refuse-audit
[h=1]Govt okays names for healthcare commission BoG[/h]PESHAWAR: The government has approved names of the members of the Board of Governors of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Healthcare Commission in line with the medical teaching institution law, according to official sources. They said that a notification in that regard would be issued soon. The healthcare commission is aimed at ensuring provision of quality health services and better healthcare facilities to the patients. Chief Minister Pervez Khattak approved a summary on Tuesday and a proper notification was expected to be issued on Wednesday, official sources said. The government has approved seven persons as private members of the 10-member Board of Governors of the healthcare commission. They include former director-general health Dr Mohammad Zafar, Dr Qaisar Munir Badshah, Dr Syed Zulfiqar Ali, Dr Abdul Saboor Bacha, retired Col Jehanzeb, Dr Jehangir and Advocate Saima Akbar while three members will represent the government from the home and tribal affair department, health department and Pakistan National Accreditation Council (PNAC) of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Islamabad. [h=4]The powerful commission will ensure provision of quality services to patients[/h]The government’s members, not below the rank of the additional secretary, would be nominated by the respective department. Unlike the health regulatory authority, which now stands demolished, the healthcare commission will be a powerful body. It will have the powers to seal the health outlets or arrest the people on the spot. For this purpose, the government has included home and tribal affairs department with a view to ensure the services of police on immediate basis and not to let the commission go the health regulatory authority’s way which was a toothless body with no power to take action. The health regulatory authority would look towards police for taking action against the errant people but would find it hard to get their services. Sources said that the healthcare commission had the powers to check the services and infrastructure of both the public and private sector hospitals and diagnostic centres and award them licences on the basis of the quality and standard they maintained. The commission will also issue certificates to the clinicians and owners of the diagnostic centres on the basis of their services and will be authorised to cancel their licences if they violate the law. “It will take immediate actions, including penalties, arrests and sending to prisons the violators of the law,” sources said. It would also give accreditation to the doctors on the basis of their qualification and experience and would specify their consultation fee, they said. Currently, all doctors in the private sector charge the patients according to their free will but with the establishment of the commission, they wouldn’t be allowed to charge more fee from the patients. “It has the power to regulate blood banks, operation theatres and emergency services at the public and private hospitals and ensure that the people get quality services,” sources said. They said that after a notification was issued by the government, the commission would start formal operations in the province. The commission had been tasked to register all clinics and medical centres and award them licences on the basis of their standards, they added. The commission will hold its first meeting after Eidul Fitr wherein chairman of BoG will be nominated from among the members. It will recruit a chief executive officer on merit, who will be running its affairs, while the Board of Governors will act as supervisory body. Published in Dawn ,July 15th, 2015 http://www.dawn.com/news/1194585/govt-okays-names-for-healthcare-commission-bog [h=1]PHC suspends restrictions on NAB in plea bargain cases[/h] PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Tuesday suspended an accountability court’s order to put certain restrictions on the National Accountability Bureau in cases of plea bargain and voluntary return of ill-gotten money. A bench comprising Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Irshad Qaisar issued notices to the attorney general for Pakistan and the Peshawar accountability court’s registrar asking them to explain their respective positions on the matter. The bench issued the order after preliminary hearing of a petition filed by the NAB challenging the order of an accountability court about the release of suspects under the provisions of voluntary return and plea bargain given in the National Accountability Ordinance 1999. Under the said ordinance, the NAB chairman is empowered to accept voluntary return application of a suspect during inquiry stage of the case. [h=4]Asks AG, accountability court registrar to explain position on matter[/h]However, when the ‘inquiry stage’ turns into investigation, then the suspect could only enter into plea bargain with the NAB. Furthermore, under the law, anyone entering into plea bargain with the NAB stands disqualified for 10 years from being elected, chosen, appointed or nominated as a member or representative of any public body or any statutory or local authority or in service of the country or of any province. However, no such bar applies to a suspect whose case is of voluntary return. A judge of the accountability court, Ibrahim Khan, had pronounced on June 13 that once a suspect was arrested by the NAB, then the ‘inquiry stage’ ended and the ‘investigation stage’ had begun, he could not be freed on basis of voluntary return. The accountability court had taken notice of the matter when the NAB had accepted voluntary return application of the executive officer of Bannu cantonment, Haseenullah Khan, who was arrested on the charge of irregularities while leasing out and auctioning certain properties. As he was in custody, the issue was referred to the court for his release after NAB approval. The accountability judge had raised several questions and had asked why the NAB has different yardsticks for different suspects as in certain cases, it releases suspects on the basis of voluntary return favouring suspects, whereas in other cases, it allows plea bargain, disqualifying suspects from holding government offices. While the court had ordered release of the executive officer, it had barred the NAB from accepting applications of suspects on voluntary return basis once he was arrested. NAB deputy prosecutor general Jamil Khan told the bench that the law was clear on the issue as unless the case had entered the ‘investigation stage’, the NAB chairman had powers to accept voluntary return application of a suspect. He said the judgment of the accountability court amounted to depriving suspects of their rights provided under the law. Published in Dawn ,July 15th, 2015 http://www.dawn.com/news/1194584/phc-suspends-restrictions-on-nab-in-plea-bargain-cases
[h=1]PHC asks Ehtesab commission to explain Ziaullah arrest[/h] PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday issued notices to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission director general and director investigation to respond to a habeas corpus petition challenging the arrest of provincial minister Ziaullah Afridi by the commission over the alleged misuse of authority. Later, a bench comprising Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Irshad Qaisar fixed July 23 for next hearing into the petition of Hidayatullah Afridi seeking the release of his detained brother, Ziaullah, on different grounds. Ziaullah Afridi, who was elected as an MPA of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf in the 2013 general elections from PK-1 Peshawar I, was arrested on July 9 by the KPEC on charges of illegal mining in different areas as well as carrying out postings and transfers in his department. Abdul Lateef Afridi and Moazzam Butt, lawyers for the petitioner, said the detainee was entitled to bail as in identical grounds, the court had allowed bail to other petitioners. They said the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) as federal agency had already initiated inquiry against the department of mines and mineral development and had already arrested several of its officials including a former director general. [h=4]Brother had sought minister’s release on bail in case of misuse of authority[/h]The counsel said the file related to illegal mining of Mamakhel mine in Nowshera district was with the NAB and that the phosphate mining case was also under its consideration, so the KPEC could not interfere in the matter under Section 35 of the KPEC Act, which clearly suggests as to which agency is to examine these cases. The petitioner said the KPEC Act 2014 was in conflict with the National Accountability Ordinance 1999 as the ordinance had been holding the field since 1999, while the Act was enforced in 2014 and therefore, in terms of Article 142 and 143 of the Constitution, the same was repugnant to the federal law, so it was an invalid law with all actions taken under it being illegal including the detention of the minister. He said the detained minister had developed serious differences with high-ups, who had threatened him with dire consequences on the issue of mines and minerals in which blue-eyed people from their home districts were involved. “In fact, the arrest of the detainee (minister) is the result of his opposition to wrong policies and acts of government,” he said. The respondents in the petition are the KPEC director general, prosecutor general, director investigation and investigation officer, judge of the ehtesab court concerned and SHO of the relevant police station. REMANDED INTO CUSTODY: An ehtesab court on Tuesday remanded the director (administration) of the mines and mineral department, Mir Zaman, into the custody of KPEC for 10 days in the case. The ehtesab judge Hayat Ali Shah directed that the suspect should be again produced on July 24. The additional deputy prosecutor general of the commission, Barrister Qazi Babar Irshad appeared before the court and said the suspect was arrested on charges of misuse of authority. He said earlier, Ziaullah Afridi and director general of the department Dr Liaquat Ali were also arrested in the case. Published in Dawn ,July 15th, 2015 http://www.dawn.com/news/1194588/phc-asks-ehtesab-commission-to-explain-ziaullah-arrest
[h=1]PTI struggling to name PA deputy speaker[/h]PESHAWAR: Despite enjoying a clear majority in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) is unable to find a suitable candidate for the office of the deputy speaker, a constitutional requirement for the government. The position has been lying vacant since October 2014 and it seems to have embarrassed the government, which is indecisive to nominate any of its 55 MPAs for the slot. Lawmakers have apparently lost interest in the House’s business due to months long session and sometimes speaker has to adjourn sitting without taking items on the agenda due to lack of quorum. This practice is causing loss to the provincial exchequer. Due to the vacant post of the deputy speaker, the government cannot prorogue the house and keeps it continuously adjourned to avoid constitutional complications. The assembly session was convened on October 23, 2014. “If the current session is prorogued, then the government is constitutionally bound to elect new deputy speaker in the next session,” said a source. The party central leadership is groping in the dark and is unable to nominate one of its MPAs for the slot as many male and female lawmakers of the PTI are reportedly interested in occupying the seat of the deputy speaker. Two of the contenders belong to Peshawar and both claim support of the party’s Chairman Imran Khan. [h=4]Govt continuously adjourning house over vacancy to avoid constitutional complications[/h]When approached, PTI central vice president Naeemul Haq was caught off guard as he said he had no answer to this issue. “Chief Minister Pervez Khattak could explain the situation why the office of the deputy speaker has been kept vacant for so long,” he said. The office of the deputy speaker has been lying vacant since October 3, 2014 when the incumbent deputy speaker Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi was inducted into the cabinet as minister for law and parliamentary affairs. An official in the assembly secretariat said that filling the seat of the deputy speaker was a constitutional requirement for the government. He said under Article 108, so often as the office of speaker and deputy speaker becomes vacant, the assembly shall elect another member as speaker or, as the case may be, deputy speaker. “If the ongoing session is prorogued, then the government is constitutionally bound to elect deputy speaker in the next session. That is why speaker is constantly adjourning the House, but he does not prorogue it,” he said. Insiders said the government initially delayed election of deputy speaker because of rifts among the ruling party’s lawmakers. And now the government had offered this post to Qaumi Watan Party, which was likely to rejoin the ruling coalition after Eidul Fitr. “Earlier QWP was interested in the office of the deputy speaker, but now it (QWP) demands a ministry,” said a senior PTI office-bearer. However, QWP spokesman Tariq Khan denied it claiming his party had never demanded any ministry or office of the deputy speaker. “This is absolutely wrong. QWP has presented a list of demands to PTI that does not contain any such thing,” he said, adding that his party might rejoin the government to protect financial rights of the province. Information minister Mushtaq Ghani said consultation was in progress and that candidate would be nominated for the slot very soon. Published in Dawn ,July 15th, 2015 http://www.dawn.com/news/1194594/pti-struggling-to-name-pa-deputy-speaker
PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf general secretary Jahangir Tareen on Wednesday kicked off his party’s reorganisation campaign in Peshawar, pledging to make it stronger and effective down to the grassroots level “There was a realisation that our party’s organisational structure was weak and we needed to reorganise the party with a view to make it more effective,” Tareen told Dawn after attending one of party meetings here. “It’s much more than organising dharnas and public meetings. It is about making it effective at the provincial, divisional, district and union council levels,” he said. Mr Tareen spent a busy day meeting party workers from Peshawar and Fata and its women chapter. Party workers heaped complaints on him, lamenting their inaccessibility to some provincial ministers and attitude of the provincial bureaucracy, an insider said. PTI chairman Imran Khan has assigned Tareen to reorganise the party in the province. He started his tour across the province from Peshawar where he also attended an Iftar party hosted by former adviser to the chief minister Yasin Khan Khalil, and interacted with party workers, including the newly elected tehsil nazims and councillors. The PTI organisational structure was dissolved in May after the Justice Wajihuddin Tribunal recommended fresh elections citing irregularities in the previous party elections. But, Imran’s subsequent notifications to retain some of those held responsible by Wajih, including Mr Tareen, drew criticism. Mr Tareen said he would be visiting Hazara division next to reorganise the party there. He said he hoped that the party’s reorganisation would be completed by end of this month. He said PTI was also setting up monitoring cells at the provincial, divisional and district levels to monitor the performance of party organ stations at different levels. Some party leaders, however, claim that Mr Tareen is also seeking to garner support for his bid to run in the party’s elections for the same position again. Published in Dawn ,July 16th, 2015 http://www.dawn.com/news/1194776/drive-to-reorganise-pti-begins-in-kp
PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Wednesday issued notices to the provincial chief secretary, health secretary and director general (health services) to explain position on a petition against the creation of surplus pool in the health department for civil servants working in medical teaching institutions. The bench comprising Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Mussarat Hilali later fixed for July 23 the hearing into the petition filed by Pakistan Medical Association Khyber Pakhtunkhwa president Dr Hussain Ahmad Haroon. It also issued orders for the clubbing of the petition with those challenging the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act 2015. The petitioner requested the court to declare the creation of surplus pool for professors and other servants of teaching hospitals across the province ‘illegal, without jurisdiction and for ulterior motives.’ He also sought orders for striking down two ‘controversial’ notifications of the provincial government and Health Sector Reforms Unit for being illegal. Mian Mohibullah Kakakhel, lawyer for the petitioner, contended that on April 23, 2015, the provincial government through a letter had asked for option from civil servants working in medical colleges to continue serving in medical colleges and teaching institutions in the category of government servants. Explanation sought from chief secretary, health secretary on PMA petition
However, he added that for utter surprise of professors of teaching institutions at graduate and postgraduate levels in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a letter had been written by the HSRU coordinator on June 24, 2015, stating that the government was creating a surplus pool in health department by withdrawing all civil servants from the medical teaching institutions. The lawyer said the controversial letter of June 24 was in direct contradiction and conflict with the earlier letter of April 24. He said the employees to be sent to surplus pool totaled more than 12,000 across the province. “Both the letters have created a great confusion for the teaching faculty, which are aggrieved of such like move whereby their whole career will be destroyed,” he said. The lawyer said there were hundreds of professors and other staffers working in 10 public sector medical colleges across the province, which were regulated by the Khyber Medical University Act of 2006. He added that the services structure of professors being governed by the PMDC under the Act of 1962. The lawyer said the said doctors and others were teaching in medical colleges and practicing in constituent hospitals providing medical services to the public. He added that the professors working in relevant fields were governed under the KP Medical and Health Institution and Regulation of health Care Ordinance 2002, KMU Act 2006 and PMDC Act 1962. The lawyer said early this year, the provincial government enacted the KP Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act 2015, which had been challenged by All Teachers Association of the Professors on various grounds. Published in Dawn ,July 16th, 2015 http://www.dawn.com/news/1194778/health-depts-surplus-pool-challenged-in-phc
PESHAWAR: A bench of the Peshawar High Court on Wednesday granted bail to an official of the Expanded Program on Immunisation and another health department official in an Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission case on misappropriation of funds and corrupt practices. Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Mussarat Hilali asked the suspects – EPI deputy director Dr Janbaz Afridi and storekeeper Zahid Ali –to furnish two surety bonds of Rs10 million each. The bench was hearing petitions filed by Faisal Janbaz Afridi, son of Janbaz Afridi, and Zahid Ali against the respective arrests under the KPEC Act 2014. Both the suspects were arrested on Jun 17 by the ehtesab commission alleging that Dr Janbaz had misappropriated funds worth millions of rupees allocated for EPI. It further alleged that storekeeper Zahid Ali had set up a fake firm by the name of Adil Enterprises and different procurement contracts were given to the said firm. Lawyer Abdul Lateef Afridi appeared for Faisal Janbaz and Attiqur Rehman for Zahid Ali. Lateef Afridi contended that the petitioner had challenged the arrest of his father on different grounds. He added that the KPEC Act had also been challenged as it was in conflict with different laws. He pointed out that neither any provision was given in the said Act regarding sending a suspect to a prison on judicial remand nor the Code of Criminal Procedure was made applicable to the proceedings under the said Act. The lawyer contended that as the CrPC was not applicable to cases under the Ehtesab Commission Act, therefore the detention of the detainee Dr Janbaz Afridi was illegal. He pointed out that in several other cases the high court had already granted bail to suspects on the same ground. The lawyer added that the Rule of consistency applied to the two petitioners and that till final disposal of the petitions, the suspects should be freed on interim bail. BAIL REJECTED: The bench dismissed the bail petition of former land acquisition collector of Provincial Housing Authority (PHA) Naveed Qadir in cases of embezzling funds of different projects. The suspect was arrested by the National Accountability Bureau, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, along with a former director general of PHA Javed Ahmad and their alleged front man Mohammad Asif. A special prosecutor of NAB, Umer Farooq, contended that the accused along with the other persons had misappropriated Rs 400 million on the pretext of land acquisition for PHA Housing Scheme at Moza Darwaza Nathiagali 2012. He added that payment for the said land was not even approved by the competent authority but the PHA had initiated the scheme without obtaining no objection certificate from concerned departments. Later on, he argued that the petitioner was booked in another case of misappropriating Rs 18 million in the purchase of land for a housing scheme in Surezai area of Peshawar. Instead of paying to the rightful land payments were made to the front man Muhammad Asif. The petitioner’s counsel argued that the trial was still in initial stages to the misery of his client. He said the petitioner should be freed on bail till conclusion of the trial. Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2015 http://www.dawn.com/news/1194785/health-officials-get-bail-in-corruption-case
PESHAWAR: Keeping in view reports of passengers’ exploitation by transporters ahead of Eidul Fitr, the Peshawar district administration has devised a plan to facilitate the public and stop overcharging by transport crew. Teams of the district administration checked over 3,000 vehicles and returned Rs760,000 to passengers during the past five days. An official statement said that a series of meetings were held and a special plan was devised to overcome the problem. All the four bus stands, including Peshawar Bus Terminal, Haji Camp Bus Stand, Charsadda Adda and Kohat Road Adda, were visited by teams of officials where banners were displayed for public awareness and also a warning to the transporters to avoid overcharging. The administration has also imposed Section 144 on sale of toy guns and firecrackers in Peshawar to discourage Kalashnikov culture and to divert the attention of children towards healthy activities. The raiding parties of administration have also confiscated fireworks and hundreds of toy guns in this connection. Teams of officials checked overcharging by transporters ahead of Eid
Four teams comprising representatives of the transporters, Municipal Corporation Peshawar and traffic police, headed by additional assistant commissioner, checked vehicles and asked the passengers to know if they had paid extra fare. It was stated that Deputy Commissioner Riaz Khan Mehsud had also constituted 12 teams of officials for effective price control to ensure availability of food items at the government prescribed rates. It was stated that until 27th of Ramazan a total fine levied in Peshawar on account of overcharging and low quality of food was over Rs4.8 million. During the raids 9,640 premises were visited and 1,782 accused persons arrested. The administration also took the initiative of establishing Ramazan sasta bazaar at Chowk Yadgar where 50 stalls were set up to provide daily use items to public. The administration also formed market committees with the involvement of community in different areas to facilitate consumers. Besides, anti-encroachment drive also remained effective. Several operations were conducted in Hayatabad, Karkhano and University Road where 693 cabins were removed, while two double storey houses at Gulbahar were demolished. In addition 1.5 kanals of government land was retrieved in Yousufzai market, Hayatabad. Land properties were also retrieved in other parts of the district, the statement claimed. The administration has also warned the owners of bakeries to avoid overcharging. After negotiations the rates of various sweets were fixed in the limits of provincial metropolis. The administration has launched SMS service in Peshawar so that the residents could communicate their concerns to the relevant officials. Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2015 http://www.dawn.com/news/1195044/30...made-to-return-overcharged-fare-to-passengers
PESHAWAR: Though the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission has yet to prove the charge of misuse of power against the detained provincial minister for mines and mineral development, Ziaullah Afridi, Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has initiated proceedings to remove him from the cabinet. The chief minister has sent a summary to Governor Sardar Mahtab Ahmad Khan seeking his approval to remove minister for mines and minerals Ziaullah Afridi from provincial cabinet. Law and parliamentary affairs ministry Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi told Dawn on Thursday that the chief minister had requested the governor to de-notify Ziaullah as member of the cabinet. He said the establishment department would de-notify Ziaullah’s portfolio after the governor signed the summary. Colleague says Ziaullah is considered suspended ‘on moral ground’
“He (Ziaullah) will be considered as minister until the government issues formal notification (for his removal),” he said, adding that the detained minister was considered suspended ‘on moral ground’. He said the summary for the removal of the minister was sent to the governor few days ago. The provincial ehtesab commission had arrested Ziaullah on July 9 on the charges of misusing authority and allowing illegal mining in various areas of the province. He is currently on physical remand. Ziaullah, who was taken into custody from his house, was given on 13 days physical remand to the ehtesab commission on last Friday. Director general of the said department Dr Liaquat Ali Khan is already in the custody of the commission on the same charges. The commission alleged that the minister had failed to exercise his authority to prevent loss to the exchequer caused by illegal mining and rather he willfully facilitated the same for personal gains. Earlier, information minister Mushtaq Ghani said Chief Minister Pervez Khattak had verbally declared to have sacked the detained minister and therefore, he (Ziaullah) was regarded as dismissed from his cabinet position. The chief minister had asked Ziaullah either to quit office by himself or else he would be removed. However, the law minister said though the statement of the chief executive was important, the government had to fulfil legal formalities. “The government will have to issue a proper notification in this regard otherwise he will continue to be part of the cabinet,” said Mr Qureshi, adding that in principle, the cabinet position of Ziaullah was ineffective due to his detention. An official in the assembly secretariat said even if the minister was removed from the cabinet, he would continue to retain his seat as MPA unless he was convicted by the court of some unlawful acts and subsequently declared disqualified by the Election Commission of Pakistan. He said even an arrested MPA could attend the assembly session. The official said, “under Section 4 of Part-III of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Provincial Assembly (Powers, Privileges and Immunities Act, 1988, in respect of a member arrested or detained on any criminal charge, the court is satisfied that he had been summoned to attend a session or a meeting of a committee, such court shall, if the offence of which such member is accused is not punishable with death or transportation for life, release him on his personal recognisance in sufficient time to enable him to attend the session or meeting, as the case may be.” In addition, the official said, under Rule 65A of the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Procedure and Conduct of Business Rules, 1988, the speaker at the written request of the member in custody or on his behalf by the respective parliamentary party leader, might, if deemed appropriate, summon the member in custody on the charge of non-bailable offence to attend a sitting or sittings of the assembly. Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2015 http://www.dawn.com/news/1195048/cm-seeks-governors-nod-for-axing-detained-minister
PESHAWAR: The Qaumi Watan Party is waiting for the response of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf over its 12-point draft agreement, sent to the latter, as its approval will pave the way for both the parties to become coalition partners again in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government. Sources said that Chief Minister Pervez Khattak had already agreed to the draft. He was waiting for the final nod from the central leadership of PTI following which QWP would rejoin the government after Eidul Fitr, they added. A senior leader of QWP said that PTI had offered two ministries -- home and irrigation -- to them in the provincial government. “QWP will join the government after Eidul Fitr because Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has already given his consent on its 12-point draft agreement,” he said. QWP was a coalition partner of PTI in the provincial government but chief minister sacked its ministers Bakht Baidar and Ibrar Hussain on charges of corruption in November 2013. After which QWP provincial chairman Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao also resigned as senior minister from Khattak’s cabinet in protest. The 12-point draft agreement for rejoining govt awaits final nod of PTI leadership
According to QWP leaders PTI offered the party to join the provincial government before the May 30 local government elections but it avoided taking any decision in haste and preferred to join the government under an agreement to avoid complications and misunderstandings in future. “We have prepared a draft of an agreement and sent it to PTI so that its leadership can examine and respond to it,” QWP central general secretary Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli told Dawn on Thursday. She said that her party wanted the agreement to be long lasting. It would require ironclad guarantee so that the previous like situation could not emerge again if they rejoined the government, she added. Rejecting reports about QWP’s demands for different portfolios, she said that those were mere speculations but her party did not want to clarify every media report. She said that the decision about portfolios would be taken later once PTI leadership examined the draft agreement. According to the draft agreement, QWP would like to get into an open-ended coalition with PTI that would go beyond the duration of the current term of the assemblies. It will also like PTI leadership to take it into confidence on national issues as all policies of a coalition partner affect the other. Similarly, QWP has asked for political space to implement its own manifesto, stating that maximum autonomy should be given to its ministers to run their departments and to report all progress to chief minister through its parliamentary leaders. The draft suggests that PTI and QWP coalition government would jointly strive to introduce a comprehensive rehabilitation and reconstruction package for all areas that are affected by extremism and violence. The draft says that trust fund for the victims of terrorism should be made operational as soon as possible and funded heavily by the provincial government. It states that reduction of loadshedding should be a priority of the provincial government along with lower electricity rates for some industrial units and revenue from energy resources should be made a part of formulating NFC award. QWP suggests that the hydropower profits given to the province from the generation of electricity should be uncapped. The profit should be increased every year. Major share of net hydro profit given to the province should become a part of the hydel fund, it says. The province should be given its share of the water resources of the country. Development of irrigation infrastructure, especially in southern part of the province, should be expedited to enhance the total irrigation area of the province. Rest of the conditions of QWP pertains to rights of tribal people and mainstreaming of Fata, politically, constitutionally, administratively and economically. The party says that extending local government to Fata and inclusion of Fata in NFC award will be its priority. The draft says that a Pak-Afghan trade corridor will be initiated by declaring Risalpur processing zone a pivotal site for duty-free imports to the zone and then their re-export by road to Afghanistan. The provincial government, it suggests, must adopt a firm stand on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the government needs to properly present its case so as to protect the long term economic interests of the province and its people. Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2015 http://www.dawn.com/news/1195043/qwp-offered-home-irrigation-ministries-in-kp-govt
TIMERGARA: The owners of thousands of acres of arable land in Dir Lower are dependent on rain for growing different crops as there is no proper irrigation system in the district. The farmers have long been demanding of the authorities to set up new irrigation channels from the Panjkora River but the successive governments have ignored their demands, leaving them on the mercy of God. The district having1,583 square kilometres area, having 51,305 acres of arable and 24,059 non-arable land, lacks a proper irrigation system. Only three per cent land in the district is irrigated through tubewells
Altaf Hussain, the president of farm services centre in Adenzai, and Haji Khaliqur Rehman, general secretary of farm service centre in Talash, told Dawn during a recent meeting that provincial government should start work on the proposed Gopalum irrigation and Sanam dam projects in Dir Lower. They said that the fertile land in district could produce all kinds of crops like sugarcane, rice, wheat and tobacco besides different vegetable. “Farmers of the area are giving up agriculture as most of their farms depend on rainwater,” Mr Hussain said, adding that local farmers prayed for rain in all seasons. The representatives of farmers said that majority of growers remained idle after sowing their fields or harvesting their crops. “That is why the farmers choose another job for earning bread for their families,” they said. Dir Lower has been divided in four sub-divisions including Adenzai, Timergara, Maidan and Jandol but most of the arable and fertile land is situated in Adenzai, Talash Timergara and Munda Jandol. An official of the irrigation department, when contacted, said that there had been 21 government-run tubewells for irrigation purposes in the district which extracted 21 cusec water and irrigated a total of 3,600 acres of land. It forms only three per cent of the total arable land. More than 300,000 acres of land is still without irrigation. “Seven of the 21 tubewells, four in Adenzai and three in Talash, have been out of order since long,” Mr Hussain said, adding God had gifted suitable natural environment to farmers in Dir in all seasons of the year. “We can produce any kind of cash crop, fresh fruits and vegetable but the government is not interested to help Dir farmers,” Haji Khaliq said. He added that there had been 53 private tubewells too which were being used by farmers for irrigating their farms in various areas of the district. Besides 21 government and 53 private tubewells, the Badwan water channel built on the Swat River also irrigated 16,000 acres of land, said the official of agriculture department. However, it is only a ‘kharif channel’ while in ‘rabbi’ its water is not available. The only mega project for irrigation in Dir Lower is the 76-kilometre long Balambat irrigation channel. This project was completed with a total cost of Rs192 million. It irrigates 11,000 acres of land in Balambat, Khazana and Gosam Dag area. The farmers said that construction of Gopalum irrigation scheme, Kamrani lift irrigation channel and Sanam dam could guarantee a green revolution in Dir Lower. They said that those projects would not only irrigate land but would also help to boost tourism and forestry in the area. Mr Hussain said that in the past, farmers would produce opium and sow poppy crop but the government banned poppy cultivation. He said that most of the funds of the Dir District Development Project (DDDP), a foreign-funded scheme for poppy growing areas of Dir, were ruthlessly spent on seminars and workshops. He said the DDDP failed to help farmers to develop agriculture in the district. He said the government then launched Dir Area Support Project (DASP) in 1999 but it also failed to bring any change in the life of farmers. Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2015 http://www.dawn.com/news/1195213/dirs-fertile-land-needs-proper-irrigation-system
PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Prohibition of Usurious Loans Bill 2014 aimed at abolishing private money lending in the province could not be passed even more than a year after it was introduced in the provincial assembly and is pending with a committee headed by the finance minister. The bill was introduced in KP Assembly on May 12, 2015 following the Peshawar High Court direction to do away with practice of private money lending in the province. At that time, Jamaat-i-Islami chief Sirajul Haq was the senior minister for finance, who earlier this year left this post after his election as senator. A finance department note available with Dawn says that the draft could not get clearance in the legislation process and is still pending with a committee headed by the minister for finance. Minister promises to look into the matter soon
The law explains usurious loans as, “a rate of interest per annum more than the bank rate.” Sub-section (1) of Section 3 laid downs that no money lender either individually or in group of persons shall carry on or continue to carry on the business of money lending to lend money or advance loan to any person for the purpose of receiving usurious interest thereon. Sub-section (2) says that whoever contravenes the provisions of sub-section 1 shall be punished by imprisonment which may extend to seven years, but shall not be less than three years or a fine of one million rupees or with both. Section 4 proposes the same punishment for abetment to those who intentionally and wilfully abets, engages, assists or aids the money lender to lend money or assist in lending the money. Also, whoever molests any borrower or debtor, whether on his own behalf or on behalf of anybody else with intention to force such borrower to pay back any loan or debt or any part thereof or any interest thereupon, shall be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term extending to five years or fine of Rs500,000 or both. Section 6 states that justice of peace on receipt of complaint regarding money lending for the purpose of interest on above the bank rate from any debtor or such business in violation of this law or molesting any borrower, if satisfied, with a view to preventing any such person from carrying such business or molesting, shall direct the local police to register a case against them for violation of provision of this law. The law also declares that on its commencement, every obligation of any debtor or borrower to pay usurious interest on debt or such part of interest as remained unpaid over and above bank rate immediately before such commencement shall stand extinguished. This law, however, does not apply to deposit of money or property at a financial institution or insurance company to earn profit, and also exempt loans floated by the government of Pakistan, advance made by financial institution, cooperative society or provident, pension or gratuity funds. When contacted, KP finance minister Muzaffar Said expressed his ignorance of being part of any such committee. However, he said that he would look into this matter in coming days. Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2015 http://www.dawn.com/news/1195226/bill-prohibiting-private-money-lending-long-pending-with-pa4
HARIPUR: With the NA-19, Haripur by-polls around the corner, the use of biometrics is on the cards. According to reports in the local media, the Election Commission of Pakistan has decided to use the thumb authentication system in 50 selected polling stations on August 16.
The news of biometrics has brought the Telephone Industries of Pakistan (TIP) back into the fold. The strategic industry, controlled by the federal IT ministry, has had the honour of manufacturing the country’s first local energy meters, telephone sets and exchanges, printed circuit boards, mobile exchanges and most importantly, the electronic voting machine (EVM) itself. Already approved A former TIP employee Haji Muhammad Ashraf, who remained part of the experimental manufacturing of the machine back in 2011, said the device was okayed by the ECP as a simple, effective and trustworthy machine. Unfortunately, the donor agency funding the project shied away from handing the contract to a Pakistani company. With the idea shelved, TIP remained purposeless for years and as a result sacked over 800 contractual employees in 2014. Locals have urged the ECP to use TIP’s EVMs which will serve a dual purpose – ensure transparent polling on Election Day and give the industry a new lease of life.
“It’s a very promising idea to use EVMs manufactured by our very own company. They should not just be used in Haripur but also in the upcoming local government polls in Punjab,” said social activist Ziafat Khan. “Owing to ill-conceived policies and corrupt practices, a revenue generating, vibrant industrial unit is languishing.” Cheaper by the dozen The EVM was the brainchild of Engineer Arif who said TIP ran a demo of the machine in front of political activists, journalists and ECP officials and won their approval. “Our product costs Rs32,000 to Rs34,000 while imported devices are priced up to Rs50,000,” he said. Arif said a single unit takes about 50 to 55 minutes to manufacture and the entire project requires only 100 TIP workers. “The ECP refused to pay about 40% of the cost in advance which the TIP badly needed given its financial troubles. This is what brought the initiative to a standstill,” Arif added. He said utilising the TIP’s expertise will help its 2,000 workers and thousands of pensioners make ends meet. No local or provincial official from the ECP confirmed the hearsay, despite repeated attempts. The system is also being opposed in numerous circles. Former Pakistan Peoples Party MPA Dr Faiza Rasheed said her party has always supported the cause. However, around 75% of the constituency’s voters belong to rural areas and the implementation of the system prior to any awareness drives could have its own ramifications. Ahsan Khan, a social scientist, said the experiment of SIM card verification proved awareness was vital so voters can utilise the system appropriately. Citing India’s example, he said the neighbour has been using EVMs since 1999 but conducted numerous educational campaigns prior to the system’s enforcement. “Hardly three weeks are left for the polls. Without educating voters, it will be very problematic,” he added. However, he supported the idea of starting off with the Punjab LG polls. Published in The Express Tribune, July 16[SUP]th[/SUP], 2015.
PESHAWAR: For the first time since its formation, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Right to Information Commission has fined someone. Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan’s (AWKUM) registrar has been penalised for refusing to provide information about hirings within the varsity and for failing to reply to a show-cause notice.
According to a notification available on the official website of the commission, a fine of Rs25,000 was imposed on Registrar Sher Alam Khan, who is also the public information officer of the varsity, on Wednesday. He was fined for refusing to provide material to Professor Miraj Khan. The latter had asked him about appointments in the varsity.
The notification added the fine was imposed under clause b of sub-section 3 under Section 26 of K-P RTI Act 2013 which states the commission has the power to impose a daily fine of up to Rs250 per day up to a maximum of Rs25,000 on any official who hinders any activity required to be undertaken by the RTI act, including prevention or delay in the disclosure of information to a requester. Repeated refusal Miraj had asked Sher for data on appointments at AWKUM by sending an application to the commission on May 11 but the latter kept silent. Although the commission sent him reminders, he did not respond. Since the registrar neglected to reply, he was issued a show-cause notice on June 17, to which he also did not respond. When contacted, Chief Information Commissioner Sahibzada Khalid Khan said, “If the registrar does not pay the fine and refuses to provide the required information, he would be summoned by the court of law and may be imprisoned for a period of up to two years.” Another member of the commission told The Express Tribune the registrar was deliberately trying to withhold the information and the university even tried to replace him. However, it was after almost three show-cause notices that the commission had to take a practical step to show it had the authority to exercise its power. The member said there were a few more cases that had a similar problem, adding if the people involved do not provide the required information to the public, cases will remain unresolved. Varsity under scrutiny The records of AWKUM are being scrutinised by National Accountability Bureau K-P which is looking into alleged illegal appointments on all ranks in the institute. On Tuesday, NAB raided the university’s accounts office and seized the data after the administration refused to allow the audit of its expenditures and projects. In addition, the Ehtesab Commission had issued several notices to the university on various dates, asking the administration to provide information regarding hiring done between 2010 and 2014. Hailing the move Nevertheless, the decision of the commission was welcomed by social activists who had previously decried the commission of being lenient with0 those who have not been providing the required data. Centre for Governance and Public Accountability welcomed the decision. In a statement issued, CGPA said Sher “wilfully prevented and delayed the disclosure of information, violating fundamental rights of the public under Article 19-A of the Constitution of Pakistan”. Article 19-A says every citizen shall have the right to have access to information in all matters of public importance subject to regulation and reasonable restrictions imposed by law. Lauding the move, the NGO added, “This will also send a strong message to public bodies to comply with the provisions of law.” Published in The Express Tribune, July 16[SUP]th[/SUP], 2015. http://tribune.com.pk/story/921621/in-a-first-rti-comission-penalises-awkum-registrar/
PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly passed as many as 38 bills during its second parliamentary year that ended on May 28, 2015.
The house passed 30 bills the previous year, seeing a 26.6% increase in a year-on-year comparison. According to Assembly Secretariat statistics, two sessions were held over 100 days of proceedings in 2014-15. Starting May 28, 2014, a total of 44 bills were tabled this year. Out of the ones that were passed, the government presented 37 while one was a private member bill. The treasury’s flagship legislative moves include the K-P Ehtesab Commission (Amendment) Bill 2014, K-P Protection of Communal Properties of Minorities Bill 2014 and the K-P Consumer Protection (Amendment) Bill 2015. The Ehtesab legislation was in continuation of the ruling parties’ larger initiative of introducing accountability within the government’s folds. The house has continually been developing accountability laws over the past few terms. The former Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal government passed the Hasba Bill back in 2003 while the Awami National Party government tabled the K-P Provincial Ombudsman Act in 2013. Read: Accusations aplenty : Marvi accuses ministry of plagiarizing draft bill On the other hand, the recent and controversial K-P Universities (Amendment) Bill 2015 also gained widespread attention. Non-legislative On the non-legislative end, as many as 102 resolutions were presented out of which 38 were passed. Thirty one resolutions were addressed to the federal government while seven to the provincial. Majority of the resolutions pertained to the home and tribal affairs as well as energy and power departments. As compared to the previous year, adopted resolutions also saw a 26.6% increase. Additionally, 26 privileged motions, 41 adjournment motions and 227 call to attention notices were moved. Politicking largely remained active throughout the year. Since the formation of the tripartite alliance of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, Pakistan Peoples Party and Awami National Party, the opposition’s voice in the house became slightly more organised. Despite some testing times like the Islamabad sit-in days, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led government largely sailed smooth throughout the parliamentary year. Questions asked As many as 826 questions were asked out of which 698 were admitted and 128 were not allowed. However, only 189 were answered. Lawmakers seemingly lost interest in debate in the second year since a staggering 1,874 questions were asked in the current assembly’s debut year 2013-14.
Meanwhile most of the asked questions were related to elementary and secondary education (102), health (66) and home and tribal affairs (62). The local government department was bothered 59 times while the labour and food departments were only questioned twice. Read: Proposed legislation: NA panel to deliberate on seven bills today Loudest voices Following tradition, JUI-F once again led the line with the most vocal parliamentarians in the house. This time round, Hangu MPA Mufti Syed Janan finished first with as many as 105 questions. Additionally, he moved eight adjournment motions, two privileged motions and one call to attention motion. The same lawmaker had finished third last year with 15 questions, a privileged motion, two adjournment motions, a resolution and two call to attention notices. He was followed by Buner MPA Mufti Fazal Ghafoor who asked 99 questions and moved one privileged as well as three adjournment motions. Ghafoor had tied with Janan last year for third position, asking 12 questions and tabling eight attention notices and a privileged motion. Girl power The most active woman lawmaker was Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s Sobia Shahid who raised 89 questions and moved a call to attention motion. She was followed by JUI-F’s Najma Shaheen who asked 50 questions and presented two call to attention motions. ANP’s Syed Jaffer Shah and Sardar Hussain Babak, PMN-N’s Sardar Aurangzeb Khan Nalotha, JUI-F’s Zareen Gul, Qaumi Watan Party’s Sikandar Khan Sherpao and Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli also remained vocal throughout the 100 days of proceedings. Published in The Express Tribune, July 15[SUP]th[/SUP], 2015.
PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s provincial chapter plans to issue show-cause notices to district and town councillors who resigned to protest the arrest of Minister for Mines and Mineral Development Ziaullah Afridi. A party insider told The Express Tribune on Tuesday that the decision was taken against 30 newly-elected district and 17 town councillors who submitted their resignations a day earlier. “The officials have violated the party’s rules and regulations,” he said, requesting anonymity. “These resignations are an attempt to blackmail the party leadership and force it to go back on its promises of rooting out corruption from government institutions.” According to the insider, the councillors and district members must be taken to task. “They should not have acted prematurely and waited for a thorough investigation and court decision,” he said. “If the minister is innocent, he will be given a clean chit.” The insider said a report has been compiled and sent to PTI Chairman Imran Khan. “In this report, we have clearly mentioned that town members and district councillors are blackmailing the party leadership to have cases withdrawn against Ziaullah,” he said. The party also plans to take action against PTI members who have thrown their weight behind the councillors and encouraged them to resign. On the fence However, party leaders have remained ambivalent about whether resignation letters have been submitted or not. Speaking to The Express Tribune over the phone, PTI Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Organiser Fazal Muhammad Khan said he was not aware of the matter. “I will meet councillors and persuade them to reconsider their decision,” he said. “Charges levelled against Ziaullah will be properly investigated and he will be given a fair trial. Councillors will need to trust in the system and not act rashly.” Khan said the Ehtesab Commission is an independent institution and the provincial government cannot interfere in its affairs. “As a result, it can ensure a transparent investigation and fair trial into the matter,” he said. On the other hand, a senior PTI leader said resignation letters had been submitted to PTI members Irfan Saleem and Kamran Bangash. However, Younis Zaheer, a PTI district leader, said resignation letters were submitted with Ziaullah’s brother. Honest mediator When contacted, an official of the Election Commission of Pakistan said resignation letters have been submitted to the party’s secretariat. ECP Spokesperson Sohail Ahmad said town councillors and district members have not taken oath. “In these circumstances, their resignations should be referred to ECP,” he said. “The election body will give its recommendations on the matter.” Ahmed assured the resignations will not affect the re-polls for local government elections scheduled for July 30. Published in The Express Tribune, July 15[SUP]th[/SUP], 2015. http://tribune.com.pk/story/920913/...-cause-notices-for-district-town-councillors/
MINGORA: Not a single case of dengue has been reported in 2015 from Mingora, Swat District Health Officer Dr Syed Ali Khan told The Express Tribune on Monday.
“There were 100 cases reported last year,” he said. “However, this year no one has fallen victim to the virus.” According to Khan, some local newspapers had reported dengue and malaria had spread in Mingora and its outskirts. “These areas are highly congested and residents are more prone to diseases,” he said. Speaking to The Express Tribune over the phone, Syed Mohiuddin, in charge of the dengue cell in the city, said these newspaper reports were alarming. “We sent a team to the area,” he said. “However, after a thorough examination, no traces of the diseases were found.” However, Khan sent multiple teams to Mingora and Saidu Sharif to 19,880 areas as a precaution and found the larvae of dengue and malaria at 353 places. “The teams destroyed them by fumigating the entire city and its outskirts,” said the district health officer. “However, the newspapers mistook the illness to be dengue.” According to the district health officer, the government is taking steps to tackle not just malaria and dengue but also other diseases caused by mosquitoes. “Blaming the government and health department for every disease is not a healthy sign,” he said. “People should take care of their personal hygiene.” Published in The Express Tribune, July 14[SUP]th[/SUP], 2015. http://tribune.com.pk/story/920356/swat-wins-battle-against-dengue-malaria-successful/
PESHAWAR: Around 30 newly elected district councilors and 17 town councilors of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) have submitted their resignations as part of a protest against the arrest of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa minister for Mines and Mineral Ziaullah Afridi. PTI town councilor Irfan Saleem along with other newly elected town and district councilors held a news conference at Peshawar press club on Monday where they criticised the KP government, and raised slogans against Chief Minister Pervez Khattak. They asked PTI chief Imran Khan to take notice of Afridi’s arrest by the Ehtisab Commission. Afridi had been arrested by the K-P Ehtisab Commission last week for misappropriation of funds and misuse of authority. The arrest and subsequent stance of the party has divided PTI workers into groups. “They have framed false charges against the ministers,” Saleem said, adding that “the ehtisab commission had become ‘Khattak Commission’ which frames charges against those who the CM considers as hurdles in the way of his personal interests.” “We will stand by the law and will secure justice for the arrested minister.” Saleem was joined by Malik Awan from UC Khalisa, Malik Aslam, Kamran Bangash from UC-9, Malik Aslam and several other party workers and elected members. All the resigning MPA were from Town 1 and from Town, with a majority from PK1 and PK2. “We have the support of 12 members of provincial assembly (MPAs) and national assembly against the CM on this issue,” Saleem claimed. http://tribune.com.pk/story/920391/...-councilors-resign-to-protest-afridis-arrest/
PESHAWAR: There has been a considerable decrease in terrorism cases in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa during the first six months of 2015 as compared to previous years.
This was said by counter-terrorism department (CTD) DIG Salahuddin during a meeting held at Central Police Office in the city on Wednesday. During the moot, he briefed participants about number of terrorism cases reported in the province over the past four years.
“Between January and June, 131 incidents of terrorism incidents have been reported across K-P,” he said. “At least 63 people, including 23 policemen, were killed in the attacks.” Salahuddin said deaths resulting from these incidents have been reduced by over 70% as compared to 2014 and 84% as compared to 2013.
According to Salahuddin, these figures are comparatively lower than terrorism cases reported in in the first six months of 2012, 2013 and 2014.
“In 2014, at least 290 incidents of terrorism were reported,” the CTD DIG said. “Meanwhile, 281 cases were registered in 2013 and 203 were recorded in 2012; there has been a substantial decrease.”
The CTD DIG added, “Terrorist attacks in the first six months of the year have left 156 people injured this year as compared to 590 during the same period in 2014.” He said, “At least 1,077 were injured in 2013, indicating a 74% decline.” Crackdowns
The DIG informed participants CTD had solved 104 cases of terrorism successfully and arrested the culprits.
“The ongoing crackdown against extortionists and kidnappers is in full swing,” he said. “Many kidnappers have been arrested.”
Speaking at the meeting, participants said police have inspected 115,000 rented houses in the province.
“Tenants are bound to share details with their local police stations,” one of the speakers said. “So far, 2,445 FIRs have been registered against those who violate this law.” He added that a crackdown against unregistered Afghan refugees is also under way.
“In the past six months, 10,175 Afghan nationals have been arrested for not possessing valid documents,” he said. “Around 2,648 people have been booked for attesting CNICs of Afghan refugees. Further action is under way.” Reduction in terrorism?
According to police report issued in May, at least 94 incidents of terrorism were reported from Peshawar district alone during the first five months of 2015.
Earlier in May, IGP Nasir Durrani said terrorism-related cases have decreased in the province by 55% over the last four years. He said significant reductions have been made in kidnapping for ransom, extortion and terrorism-related cases.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 9[SUP]th[/SUP], 2015. http://tribune.com.pk/story/917374/...ategorised-as-terrorism-drop-from-290-to-131/
PESHAWAR: There has been a considerable decline in murder and attempted murder cases reported during the first six months of 2015 in Peshawar district, an official of the City police told The Express Tribune.
“In the first six months of 2014, 314 murders cases were reported,” he said. “However, at least 216 people have been killed while 286 have been injured in cases of attempted murder over the past six months.” According to the official, there has been a reduction in kidnapping cases but not in cases involving children.
“Four cases involving the kidnapping of children have been reported between January and June,” he said. However, “During the same period last year, three children were abducted in the city,” he said. “This year, four children were abducted.”
The official noted kidnapping for ransom cases have declined from 29 to nine cases in 2015. Only 32 cases of abduction triggered by disputes were registered as compared to 53 cases last year. There were 34 cases registered by families of women who were believed to have been “kidnapped for marriage” said the City official. The official said 74 cases of assault against the police had been reported between January and June as compared to 44 which were registered in 2014 during the first two quarters. “The figures are quite alarming,” he added. During the first six months of the year, 66 cases of car lifting and nine cases of car snatching were registered. “Last year, 115 cases of car lifting had been registered in the first six months,” the official said. “However, the same number of cars was snatched between January and June 2014.” “Ever since the counter-terrorism department has taken responsibility of dealing with terrorism cases, police can now focus on tackling other crimes,” the official said. “However, we are still overburdened and have to see to other routine responsibilities and duties.” Published in The Express Tribune, July 6[SUP]th[/SUP], 2015. http://tribune.com.pk/story/915506/city-witness-reduction-in-some-crimes-spike-in-others/
PESHAWAR: Major projects initiated in the city under the five-year Municipal Services Programme (MSP) are nearing completion.
Speaking to The Express Tribune on Tuesday, MSP Project Manager Niaz Muhammad said the cleaning and de-silting of primary and secondary drains has been completed in 12 union councils of Town-1.
“So far work has taken place in Sikandar Town, Gul Bahar, Shaheen Muslim Town-1, Shaheen Muslin Town-2, Sheikh Junaidabad, among other areas,” he added.
According to the project manager, MSP will also assist the relevant authorities in improving drainage systems in Town-1. “The programme will be extended to 46 union councils and will help ensure the city remains clean,” he added. Programme structure
Although MSP was introduced by the provincial government in 2011, it has started to bear fruit and is likely to positively impact the lives of citizens. The programme was designed with the support of USAID in light of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Comprehensive Development Strategy 2010-17 and Millennium Development Goals.
“The estimated budget for the five-year programme in $102.71 million,” Muhammad said. “USAID agreed to contribute $84.75 million of this amount while the K-P government pitched in $12.71 million. “Additional funds worth $5.25 million were received from USAID for equipment and technical support.” After Peshawar, the programme will be extended to DI Khan and Malakand. Local help
Municipal services based in the city have also played a pivotal role in ensuring the programme is successful.
Speaking to The Express Tribune, MSP Monitoring, Evaluation and Communication Specialist Amjad Hussain said Water and Sanitation Services Peshawar (WSSP) has provided machinery and equipment to manage solid waste. “They have provided us with mechanical sweepers, containers and at least 156 vehicles,” he said. “Furthermore, WSSP has also allowed us to use the services of their employees if the need arises.” According to Hussain, WSSP has also repaired tubewells and pipes to assist the MSP’s projects. “Two blocks of public toilets have also been constructed in Haji Camp Adda in the city,” he said. “At least, Rs735 million have been released by WSSP out of which Rs715 million have been spent on projects in Town-1 area.” MSP Project Director Attaur Rehman told The Express Tribunethe programme will help provide safe drinking water and better sanitation. A pleasing move Gulzada Khan, a social activist and resident of Dalazak Road, lauded the initiative, saying it will make the city cleaner and less congested. Gulzada added MSP vehicles are frequently seen disposing waste from the streets. “Through this programme, old water pipes have been replaced,” he said. “Residents now have access to clean drinking water. This will protect them from various diseases.” Published in The Express Tribune, July 22[SUP]nd[/SUP], 2015. http://tribune.com.pk/story/924089/a-step-forward-municipal-services-programme-in-city-bears-fruit/
PESHAWAR: The Ehtesab Commission (EC) expanded its search in the manhunt for former mines and mineral development department secretary and raided his house on Tuesday. Mian Waheeduddin is wanted by the commission for alleged involvement in a corruption case. He has been on the run for several days now and the commission has conducted a series of raids to arrest him. Insiders familiar with the matter told The Express Tribune the former secretary was not present at his home when EC officials barged in. A thorough search was conducted and the officials seized important documents from his residence. EC DG General (retd) Hamid Khan issued Waheeduddin’s arrest warrants on July 17, asking IGP Nasir Durrani to detain him for his involvement in corruption. “Mian Waheeduddin has committed the offence of corruption as defined under Section 23 of K-P Ehtesab Commission Act 2014,” reads a copy of the warrant which is available with The Express Tribune. “Therefore, we direct his arrest under Section 38 and Section 36(5), the arrest of the legislation.” The warrant added Waheeduddin can be produced before the court for “the authorisation of detention for a period that is deemed necessary to finalise investigation”. On Monday, the K-P government approached the Centre for a copy of the letter said to have been written by Waheeduddin which accused Chief Minister Pervez Khattak of nepotism. Published in The Express Tribune, July 22[SUP]nd[/SUP], 2015. http://tribune.com.pk/story/924065/...n-raids-former-minerals-secretarys-residence/
PESHAWAR: After doctors rejected it and threatened a strike at teaching hospitals in the province, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Wednesday decided to amend the Medical Institutions Reforms Act (Mira) 2015. The amendments in the act have been introduced to add a lure for health reforms which would see 3,900 people included into the surplus pool. According to the Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act 2015, all the civil servants serving in the existing Medical Teaching Institution shall be given an option either to continue service as civil servants or opt for employment at the Medical Teaching Institution. In section 16 of the act, it says “Civil servants who opt for employment in the Medical Teaching Institutions (MTI’s), their service structure, promotion and disciplinary matters shall be determined by the MTIs, such officials will be entitled to post retirement benefits and emoluments as per existing government laws and rules.” Such institution will also offer pensions. For those who are on deputation, their pension contribution will be made by the respective teaching hospital of their employment. The new amendments also will provide the space to doctors to carry on their private practice within the limits of the government hospital of their employment. The amendment in section 17 of the act adds that “employees who opt for private practice within the premises of the ….. may be entitled to increase in salary, adjustment, bonuses and other ancillary benefits as the Board may approve.” Under the act, the teaching hospitals will become autonomous bodies and will be run by the BOG’s. “The amendments also seek to maintain a permanent seat for people who become part of MTI” said the official. “They will not be transferred till the period of their employment is complete,” he added. An official privy to the matter told The Express Tribune that the amendments will be presented in an assembly session scheduled to be held at the end of the month. The amendments aim to end the confrontation between the doctors and the introduction of the Board of Governor’s under the contentious act. The enactment Mira 2015 had earlier been rejected by doctor’s bodies including, Provincial Doctors Association, Paramedical Association, Nursing Council, Clerks and Class-IV associations. Move reeks of privatization: employee’s body However, the Health Employees Coordination Council in Peshawar said that they still had reservations regarding the entire act and the amendments. In a rushed press conference in Peshawar, General Secretary Dr Mahfooz said that the entire system was heading towards privatisation and only private employees had been allowed to vote for the members of the BOG’s, whereas government employees were barred, he said. He also said that they had submitted a writ petition against the said act and that it’s hearing was due tomorrow (Wednesday) “Majority of the board members are sitting abroad – will they run the hospital online?” they questioned. The doctors said that they had reservations against the said Act and there were around 41 points that needed either elaboration or amendments. Clarifying their stance, they said that they were not against the introduction of the BOG’s or the health policies but the government needed to come clean about the decision. http://tribune.com.pk/story/924727/...-p-agrees-to-amend-controversial-health-bill/
PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa had introduced an online system in 16 colleges across the province to facilitate college admissions. The new system has only been launched in three colleges of Peshawar and Charsadda on a trial basis, and is expected to extend to other districts of the province gradually. However, due to a lack of proper training and education in information and technology, this new online admission system is highly unpopular among students. The pupils of Government Superior Science College (GSSC) of Peshawar criticised the new system and protested against it.
Noor Rehman, a student of GSSC, who had received high marks in his SSC said, “Despite my good grades, I failed to secure admission because my online form was filled incorrectly. Most of us went to a nearby internet caf to fill our forms and now my online tracking ID does not even match the one on my online form.” Another student, Waqifullah, a resident of Afridiabad in the city, said, “I live in Peshawar and applied for a local seat but my online form places me in the non-local category.” Waqifullah added, “Because of this, the admission committee has cancelled my name from the selected candidates’ list.” Not the helpful caf Bahir Shah, also a student of GSSC, said a majority of students had no idea regarding the use of technology and they paid the internet caf administrator Rs100-200 to fill their forms. He blamed the caf administrator for filling the forms incorrectly. A teacher from GSSC, requesting anonymity, agreed with Shah and said the students have suffered greatly due to the new online admission procedure. “Several qualified students’ names have been cancelled from the merit list due to incorrect information on the forms,” he added. GSCC Admission Committee Chairman Qadeer Khan said, “We have received 800 online applications against 220 seats and have received several complaints about the new online system.” He also added all the students facing problems were encouraged to go to the college and submit a written application regarding the problem. Khan assured the students their issues will be resolved as soon as possible. Published in The Express Tribune, July 24[SUP]th[/SUP], 2015.
PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Directorate of Archaeology and Museums plans to organise an international conference on archaeology in the province in August. Speaking to journalists at the directorate’s office in the city on Thursday, Director for Archaeology and Museums Dr Abdul Samad said the conference will be held from August 16 to August 18 at the Baragali campus of University of Peshawar. The event will be organised in collaboration with the varsity’s archaeology department.
“The conference aims to highlight the archaeological heritage of K-P,” he said. “Through this initiative, we will formulate a comprehensive strategy to preserve and conserve this heritage.” Guest list “Over 300 delegates from US, China, and Italy will participate in the three-day conference,” Samad said. “These will include renowned archaeologists and researchers. At least 50 research papers will be presented on the occasion.” According to the director, arrangements for the conference have been made under the supervision of UoP Vice Chancellor Dr Rasool Jan, Chairman for Department of Archaeology Dr Mukhtar Durrani and conference coordinator Dr Zakarullah Jan. Preserving heritage “The protection of all archaeological treasure is a priority,” Samad said. “We must preserve our cultural and archaeological identity, and carry out more archaeological excavations in various parts of the province.” Secretary for Tourism, Archaeology, Museums and Youth Affairs Azam Khan said the conference will provide a platform for participants to benefit from the experiences, insights and observations of other researchers. “The conference will provide an opportunity to chalk out a plan to preserve and conserve archaeological sites across the province,” he added.
Samad added archaeological tourism should be promoted at national and international level.“The provincial government is eager to promote K-P’s rich archaeological heritage and culture,” he said. Published in The Express Tribune, July 24[SUP]th[/SUP], 2015.
PESHAWAR: A tepid run up to the July 30 local government re-polls seems like a foregone conclusion after developments such as floods in Chitral, the Judicial Commission’s report on 2013 general elections and politicking for district governments.
Exactly two months ago, almost all political parties in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa were almost frantically preparing for the May 30 LG polls. Less than two months ago, parties were still giving LG due importance, calling foul over alleged rigging. But the Election Commission of Pakistan’s decision to re-poll stations where irregularities were noted met with a lukewarm response and things have only gone quieter ever since. Now re-polls are just four days away and there is hardly any campaigning or political activity visible. While Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and its allies are still basking in the glory of their May 30 performance, and adding partners to the provincial coalition government, the tripartite alliance of opposition parties has shown little interest in regaining ground lost to the coalition parties. Awami National Party, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl and Pakistan Peoples Party – all their offices look deserted and leaders are not seen busy solidifying seat arrangements. Perhaps the tripartite fails to see the significance of such limited re-polls on the overall local government picture. Perhaps the tripartite alliance has lost relevance. One thing is certain, their vote bank is scattered and ANP is busy jostling with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, which has a lead in the LG set-up which is sufficient enough for it to not care too much about July 30.
Nonetheless, what the re-polls will do is legitimise the elections and once the controversy surrounding them is settled, then real electioneering will begin. Parties in every district, tehsil and town council will resume efforts to attract as many swinging candidates as possible – bringing some alliances to life once again. But for now electioneering remains a cold affair.
Guns gone silent
At the onset, the opposition’s alliance had announced an outright rejection of the May 30 polls and even called for heads to roll and a caretaker set-up to takeover. Alliance chief and ANP General Secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain said his party has still not accepted poll results. “We are still participating in the re-polls to give PTI a tough time,” he said. “The alliance will pursue the same adjustment formula that members decided upon before May 30.” Mian Iftikhar added, “These polls are a continuation of May 30. This is the reason why we have restricted our activities and are pursuing the same agreements.”
While earlier alliance members used to speak for the entire front, now leaders comment on their own party’s agenda. Mian Iftikhar said ANP wants to expose the “so-called champions of change.”
Pakistan Peoples Party leader Nighat Orakzai maintained the alliance is still intact and seat adjustment with fellow members will be made public on either Sunday (today) or Monday. “We held a meeting after ECP’s announcement. We agreed to support each other’s candidates,” she said.
However, the decision of party bigwigs did not go down well with local tier leaderships and the alliance could not work out in councils in numerous districts of K-P. “We will not tolerate any mismanagement or rigging this time,” Orakzai added.
Common enemy?
JUI-F says it is still up for a fight against PTI and Co. “We have already decided upon everything. There is no need to form a new alliance,” said JUI-F leader Maulana Abdul Jalil Jan. He said the party was following a policy of restraint and tolerance for the greater good of democracy otherwise poll rigging is already the talk of the town. Published in The Express Tribune, July 26[SUP]th[/SUP], 2015.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/926498/local-government-tripartite-alliance-an-unseen-entity-before-re-polls/
PESHAWAR: The higher education department has decided to declare seven government colleges at divisional level as degree awarding institutions to bring improvement in quality of education, according to officials. “All the state-run colleges would be de-affiliated from the public sector universities once the process of declaring government colleges as degree awarding status is completed,” an official in higher education department told Dawn. He said that some government colleges in each divisional headquarters of the province were selected for the purpose. The rest of the colleges in each administrative division would be constituent colleges of that college, which would be given degree awarding status, he added. Sources said that currently 182 government colleges were affiliated with 19 public sector universities in different parts of the province. They said that the number of students in those government colleges was 190, 000. The private colleges would continue their affiliation with the government universities. The public sector universities haven’t enough time to fulfil the responsibilities of ensuring the quality of academics and teaching in their affiliated colleges, according to sources. Officials say the move is aimed at improving quality of education
With de-affiliation of all government colleges from the public sector universities, the right to award degrees and conduct examinations, currently being enjoyed by the universities, would be given to the selected colleges. The administration of the universities, especially the old ones, deem de-affiliation of government colleges a financial loss to them because the universities earn considerable amount from the college students through different fees including fee for examinations, awarding degrees, detail marks certificates etc. The higher education department has selected seven postgraduate colleges including Government Postgraduate College Peshawar, GPGC Mardan, GPGC Abbottabad No.1, GPGC Kohat, GPGC Dera Ismail Khan and Government Postgraduate Jahanzeb College, Mingora for the purpose. Those colleges would conduct examinations up to bachelor level -- the 16 years degree programme -- of the constituent government colleges. Such colleges would establish their own examination system, sources said. For providing legal cover to the move, the higher education department has proposed a law titled “The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Government Degree Colleges Bill, 2015”. Preamble of the law states: “It is expedient to reconstitute and reorganise government colleges to provide for affordable quality higher education and to further improve their governance and management by ensuring accountability and transparency by upgrading selected government colleges into degree awarding colleges as government colleges at Abbottabad, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan, Haripur, Kohat, Mardan, Mansehra and Peshawar with prominent government colleges of respective districts constituting the main campuses and to make provisions for matters connected therewith and ancillary thereto.” The proposed law states that the contents of this Act shall apply to Government Jehanzeb College Saidu Sharif Swat and other government colleges in Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (Pata) only after the governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa issues henceforth regulations to that effect under the Article 247 of the Constitution of Pakistan, 1973. Under the proposed law, these colleges will get academic autonomy, however, they will be dependent financially on the government. Different bodies including higher education executive council, academic council, academic department, higher education executive council and government degree college executive council will be also established under the proposed bill. Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2015 http://www.dawn.com/news/1195432/seven-colleges-to-get-status-of-degree-awarding-institutions
SWABI: Awami National Party has offered the district naib nazim slot to Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F in a bid to thwart the PTI plan to form local government at the district and the tehsil levels with the support of JUI-F. ANP district president Ameer Rehman told Dawn on Tuesday that he had been in touch with the JUI-F leaders to establish a coalition government in the district. “We have 22 district councillors and JUI-F seven out of 53 councillors, while the result on three union councils is still awaited. Pakistan Muslim League-N is also supporting us in formation of the district government,” he added. ANP, JUI-F and PPP contested together the May-30 local government elections. On the other hand, PTI and JUI-F leaders said they were close to striking a deal to establish a coalition government in Chota Lahor tehsil as the former has offered tehsil nazim slot to the latter despite the fact the ruling party has more members in the tehsil house than any other party. “By offering JUI-F the tehsil nazim slot, PTI wants to create a gulf between JUI-F and ANP,” said an ANP leader. In the district assembly, ANP has 22 members, JUI-F seven, PTI 10, Awami Jamhoori Ittehad Pakistan six, and Swabi Qaumi Mahaz, QWP, JI and PML-N two each. Re-polling would be held in some polling stations of Dobian union council, Saleem Khan and Bachai on July 30. PTI leaders have been pursuing winning candidates to establish coalition government in the district and Swabi and Chota Lahor tehsils. “We are negotiating with the elected members the establishment of coalition government,” said Anwar Haqdad, former PTI district president. He said PTI had no problem in forming local government in Topi tehsil as it enjoyed clear majority, adding the party wanted to enter into an alliance with the JUI to form governments in the district and Chota Lahor, where it lacked majority. However, ANP leaders said since PTI had only 10 members in the district assembly it couldn’t form the local government. Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2015
PESHAWAR: Despite getting free textbooks and monthly stipend from the government, about 0.8 million students of the state-run schools in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa remain absent from the educational institutions daily, according to sources. As many as 812,243 of the total 3.814 million enrolled students of government schools were found absent from the educational institutions on daily basis in the month of May, sources in elementary and secondary education department told Dawn. It is 21 per cent of the total enrolled students in the province. They said that of the total absent students, from nursery to the intermediate level, 0.5 million (20 per cent) were boys and 0.3 million (23 per cent) were girls. “The figure is alarming. The government should conduct a survey to ascertain the reasons of such a high number of absenteeism,” said an educationist serving on an important position in the education department. Minister says poverty and social factors are causes of absenteeism
He said that there might be something wrong with the education system, schools, teachers or aims and objectives of the education due to which the ratio of absent students was so high. Kohistan district tops the list by recording 51 per cent absenteeism of students followed by Tank with 43 per cent, Battagram with 35 per cent, Dera Ismail Khan with 30 per cent, Torghar with 29 per cent, Lakki Marwat with 27 per cent, Shangla and Swat with 24 per cent each, Karak with 23per cent, Charsadda and Nowshera with 22 per cent each, Bannu and Mansehra with 21 per cent each, Peshawar, Haripur, Kohat, Swabi, Abbottabad and Mardan with 20 per cent each, Buner with 19 per cent, Mardan, Chitral and Malakand with 18 per cent each, Hangu with 16 per cent while both Dir Lower and Dir Upper has recorded 15 per cent absenteeism of students. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has been distributing free textbooks among the students of state-run schools for the last 11 years. In the current academic year, Rs2.5 billion has been allocated for provision of free textbooks to students. Similarly, the provincial government has also been giving monthly stipend of Rs200 to each girl student from 6th to 10th grade across the province while Rs400 is given to each student in the low enrolment districts including Peshawar, Swat, Dir Upper, Shangla, Hangu, Battagram and Tank. In absence of proper study about the recorded high number of absent students, officials in education and its attached departments have their own observations. An official said that in some areas the enrolment was very low but teachers of the respective schools mentioned fake names in the school’s register to show their performance. “If the actual number of low enrolment is brought into the notice of high-ups of education department then transfer of such teachers to other schools with high enrolment is must,” he said. Sometimes, said another official, the teachers showed maximum strength of students to justify presence of more teachers in the respective school. In such a situation, when monitors visit the schools and compare the present students in the classrooms with those mentioned in the registers, the fake students are definitely shown as absent. A principal of a government higher secondary school linked the students’ absenteeism with the poverty and lack of awareness among the parents. “I have seen my students working in the fields during school timing to earn some money for their parents,” he said. Similarly, boy students went to workplace along with their fathers and girl students often stayed at home to help their mothers, he said. A senior official in education department said that absenteeism was high in the rural areas. The parents in urban areas, despite being poor, sent their children to schools, he said. The official said that corporal punishment, overcrowded classrooms, teachers’ behaviour and lack of interest by parents could also be the reasons of students’ absenteeism. He said that absenteeism had also negative impact on the results of the students, particularly in the secondary schools certificate and intermediate examinations. Minister for Elementary and Secondary Education Mohammad Atif Khan, when contacted, termed poverty and social factors as causes of absenteeism of students. “The poor parents prefer to send their children to workplace to earn Rs200 or Rs300 instead of schools because they (parents) are not sure that their sons would get lucrative job after getting educated in the government schools,” he said. The minister said that the parents thought that if their children could start working after saying goodbye to education at 7th or 8th grade then why not at an early age. With improving quality of education in the government schools for which the government was making all efforts, the parents would start sending their children to schools, he said. Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2015 http://www.dawn.com/news/1195651/21pc-students-remain-absent-from-kp-schools-daily
KHAR: Local administration on Tuesday arrested scores of drivers, mostly teenagers, for driving without licence. An official told reporters here that the action was taken in the wake of increasing road accidents in the agency. He said at least 80 drivers, most of them teenagers, were arrested while several vehicles were also impounded in different parts. The official said the action was taken in the larger public interest as road accidents had increased considerably during the Eid days. He said a recent survey conducted by the local administration showed that reckless driving by untrained drivers, particularly teenagers, was the main cause of road mishaps in the region. The official said plying of non-custom paid vehicles was also to be blamed for road accidents as majority of such vehicles were driven by teenagers and untrained drivers. Replying to a question, the official said over 4,000 non-custom paid vehicles had been registered in the agency over the last two and half years. He said every effort would be made to ensure disciplined driving on the roads in the agency as human lives were precious. The official said the political tehsildar of all the tehsils had been directed to keep close watch over driving by teenagers in their respective areas. Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2015 http://www.dawn.com/news/1195625/scores-held-for-driving-without-licence
PESHAWAR: The much-talked about ‘mass transit system’ in the provincial capital has hit newer snags with those associated with one of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s pet projects are now acknowledging its dream may not realise, not at least in its present term in office.
“It seems difficult now,” Senator Mohsin Aziz, deputy chairman, Board of Investment, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the architect of the mass transit system, acknowledged, while talking to Dawn.
Mr Aziz, a born Peshawari industrialist now associated with PTI, who had piloted the project, who has been running from pillar to post, says the Pakistan Railways plans to lay down second track from Karachi to Peshawar which might leave little or no space to run air-conditioned buses along the existing tracks from Chamkani to Hayatabad.
He said that he along with Chief Minister Pervez Khattak met with Railways Minister Khwaja Saad Rafiq just a day before Eid to discuss the project. He said that the federal minister told them that the work was ongoing to finalise feasibility of second railway track from Karachi to Peshawar and it was difficult for him to commit anything before it was completed. Architect of the project acknowledges that the dream may not realise
“The railway’s feasibility is expected to be finalised by the end of next month. “We will then sit down and compare feasibility of our mass transit system with the railway’s report and see if there is space for us to run our buses along the tracks,” Mr Aziz said.
“Khwaja sahib was very positive but from the looks of it, it seems to me that there would not be enough space on either side of the existing railway tracks for us to run MTS on either side.”
Mr Aziz had envisaged running private-sector-owned air-conditioned buses from the eastern Chamkani point to west-end Hayatabad, utilising railway-owned land along the existing tracks to avoid Peshawar’s chaotic traffic.
According to him, infrastructure construction etc for the proposed MTS would have cost Rs14 billion including roads, overhead bridges and that a Korean transport company had agreed to run the buses on the routes charging existing fares from passengers. With Mr Aziz’s brainchild MTS now more or less a no-go, attention is being paid to two other options, sources say.
The most expensive option, more expensive than Islamabad Metro, is to carve two-lanes each on both sides out of the already crammed 20 kilometres long existing Grand Trunk Road including Khyber Road that passes through the cantonment area from Chamkani to Hayatabad and run buses.
The pre-feasibility of the project, pushed by a former federal bureaucrat and a former diplomat, associated with PTI has cost millions of rupees. “It’s not even a pre-feasibility. It is basically a concept paper,” a source familiar with the proposal said.
“A rickshaw wallah can prepare such a concept, prepared by an Australian,” the source said, requesting he not be named. “It is ridiculous. Anyone living in Peshawar knows the state of traffic mess in the city. You don’t need a foreigner to come and tell you that,” he said. A feasibility report to be financed through a grant of the Asian Development Bank would cost $10 million. That in Pakistani rupee term comes to Rs1.15 billion. “This is just the cost of the feasibility report,” the source said.
“The cost of the entire project, if carried out would be in excess of Rs50 billion. Can this poor province afford this? This is one big question we need to ask ourselves before we make any decision,” the source argued.
In contrast to the ridiculously expensive two-lane project proposal, Mr Aziz’s MTS feasibility cost Rs22 million only and it too contained alternative propositions.
The third option now before the Pervez Khattak government is to run air-conditioned buses to ply on existing roads to provide better transportation facilities to the people. “It can be a joint public-private venture,” the source said.
But critics say that while the introduction of new air-conditioned buses may provide better transportation facility, it would neither cut down travel time between the eastern and western ends nor the costs.
“The buses would be running along rickshaws, rehris and donkey carts. This proposition is by no means an answer to our massive transportation problem,” the source acknowledged. With all these options, though technically still on the table, yet more or less out of question either for being unfeasible or way too expensive, Peshawar is left with no other choice.
“Lahore has its Metro. Rawalpindi-Islamabad got its Metro and Karachi is getting one also. Where do we stand in this equation,” the source asked.
Analysts now wonder whether Chief Minister Khattak should have accepted and not spurned Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s offer to build a Metro Bus System in Peshawar too.
“Should we have accepted the offer? I think we should have. It was federal money. Sharif is helping Sindh build Metro and Orang Line. The money is not coming from his personal kitty. Its federal money and KP and for that matter, Peshawar is as much entitled to it as Karachi or Pindi is,” one official said.
“But for that the PTI leadership would have to eschew its criticism of the Metro Bus by calling it a Jangla Bus. And that would be a climb down for the party leadership and this is what they would never do. It’s a matter of politics and egos,” the official remarked. Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2015 http://www.dawn.com/news/1195629/peshawars-mass-transit-system-hits-new-snag
PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Wednesday stopped the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission from acting against provincial mines and mineral development secretary Mian Waheeduddin for the time being in a case of alleged misuse of authority and illegal mining. The bench comprising Justice Nisar Hussain and Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth later fixed for Aug 6 the next hearing into a petition of Mian Waheeduddin against the KPEC Act 2014 as well as the commission’s inquiry against him. The petitioner, whose arrest warrants were issued by the commission few days ago, insisted the inquiry was based on mala fide intentions. The bench asked respondents, including the KPEC director general and prosecutor general and the NAB chairman and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s director general of National Accountability Bureau (NAB). Mian Waheeduddin faces charges of misuse of authority, role in illegal mining
The commission has already arrested the provincial minister for mines and mineral development (MMD), Ziaullah Afridi, and the MMD’s director general, Dr Liaqat Ali. Writ petitions challenging their detention have also been pending before the high court. Abdul Lateef Afridi and Muazzam Butt, lawyers for the petitioner, said their client had been serving in the mines and mineral development department as secretary since his appointment on July 15, 2013 by the provincial government. They said their client had begun extensive work on policy framework, standard operating procedures and draft of the Mineral Development Bill after his appointment and he was further motivated after the introduction of the first ever mineral policy of the province. The lawyers said their client had taken notice of illegal mining in Mamakhel area of Nowshera district and got around 260 FIRs registered against culprits but high-ups of the province were annoyed by it, which was evident from the fact that the government didn’t act against culprits. They added that the NAB had already been conducting investigation regarding certain matters of the department and that a former minister and 10 others were already in its custody. The lawyers said once the NAB had assumed jurisdiction in the case, the KPEC got no legal authority to hold inquiry into it. They requested the court to declare that the KPEC Act was in conflict with the Constitution. The lawyers also prayed the court to declare that the cognisance assumed by the commission under the said law for initiating inquiry and issuing a questionnaire to their client is without jurisdiction and has mala fide intentions. In his petition, the secretary claimed that in Sept 2014, the chief minister had directly summoned him, the DG and other staff of his department to his office and confronted them with Saleem Mughal, a representative of Tony Park, a mining firm having dispute with the department, by questioning the action of the department against it. He added that he was explained to the chief minister that the department had taken notice of illegal and corrupt practices of the firm on the ground that the firm excavated antimony from mines in Chogor area of Chitral but sold it in China without lawful authority and through unfair means. The petitioner said in April 2015, he as secretary of the department dismissed the appeal of Tony Park on antimony mining on merit as it was selling antimony to China and thus, causing huge losses to the exchequer. He said few weeks ago, the department took back possession of antimony mines in Chitral from the defaulting company, Tony Park, and that the action attracted the mala fide indulgence of the prosecution under the KPEC Act 2014 at the direction of the relevant respondents. Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2015 http://www.dawn.com/news/1195848/phc-stops-ehtesab-commission-from-arresting-mines-secretary
PESHAWAR: The dead body of seven-year-old boy, who was kidnapped for ransom, was recovered from a house here on Tuesday night, police said. They said that the owner of the house identified as Haseeb was arrested for the crime. The body of the kidnapped boy was recovered during a late night raid by Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD), an official of Yakatook police station told Dawn. According to a statement issued by CTD, seven-year-old Mohammad Haris, a resident of Mohallah Ghufran Habib outside Kohati Gate, was kidnapped on July 12 and later his kidnappers demanded Rs5 million from his family for his release. It said that following investigations, CTD arrested Haseeb and recovered the body of the kidnapped boy from his house. Owner of house arrested, police say his accomplices will be nabbed soon
The statement said that during investigation, the arrested person informed police about his other accomplices, who would be nabbed soon. Khan Zeb, The father of Haris, told Dawn that his son was kidnapped when he was going to attend his tuition classes at the residence of his tutor. He said that the kidnappers lived at the same Mohallah. He said that they drugged his son and then put him in a bag which resulted in his death. He said that after the murder, the body of his son was placed on a water tank atop the house, where it got decomposed. He said that police traced a kidnapper with the help of the owner of a public call office from where he used to call him to demand ransom. Mr Zeb alleged that the entire family of the arrested man was involved in the crime. They should be awarded exemplary punishment, he said. How they didn’t come to know about a dead body lying in their home, he questioned.
ROBBERS HELD: Police claimed here on Wednesday to have arrest three robbers, who looted a house in Hayatabad earlier this month, and recovering looted items from their possession. Addressing a press conference at his office, SP Rana Umer Farooq said that the robbers had taken away Rs300,000 cash, 26 tolas of gold and a laptop from the house of Habib in Hayatabad Phase-II on July 13. He said that following investigation, police arrested Kamran, a resident of Naway Kallay, and recovered from his possession about 20 tolas of gold, Rs80,000 cash and the laptop. The SP said that police raided another place and arrested two more suspects. However, he did not share names of the two arrested persons with media. Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2015 http://www.dawn.com/news/1195847/body-of-kidnapped-boy-recovered-from-house-in-peshawar
