Staff Reporter
Peshawar
Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan has directed all the provincial departments to meticulously review their respective laws having conflicts with the laws of other departments and to propose necessary amendments so that such discrepancies in the laws could be removed. He has also directed that the provincial cabinet be given detail briefing about the latest situation of rules formulated so far under the laws passed during the tenure of the incumbent and previous provincial governments further directing that all those departments who have not yet formulated rules under their new legislations should immediately make rules and submit for subsequent approval of the provincial cabinet.
He has also directed for detailed briefing to the provincial cabinet in its next meeting about the implementation status on all the decisions taken by the incumbent cabinet. He was chairing a meeting of the provincial cabinet here on Monday. Besides the cabinet members, the meeting was attended by additional Chief Secretary and administrative Secretaries of concerned departments. Addressing the meeting, the Chief Minister termed the fast track promotion of construction and housing sectors as one of the priority areas of his government and said that the provincial government in as per the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan was taking effective measures to attract maximum the private investment in aforementioned sectors with the aim to create maximum employment opportunities and boost economic activities in the prevailing Corona situation.
However, he added that the protection of agricultural lands would also be ensured at all cost. He urged the need to have a comprehensive strategy to protect agriculture lands and directed that all the relevant departments to sit together and devise a workable strategy for this purpose. He lauded the Mineral Development Department for record collection of revenue worth Rs. 3.25 Billion this year as compared to Rs. 2.10 Billion during the last year and directed that all other departments to improve their performance with regard to revenue collection.
Later on briefing the media about the decisions taken in the meeting of provincial cabinet, Advisor to Chief Minister on Information, Ajmal Wazir told that the cabinet has formally approved necessary amendments in the Local Government Act 2019 in order to promote economic activities and employment opportunities by facilitating the construction and private housing sectors. Under these amendments the entire cumbersome process of obtaining NoCs and approval of building plans for private housing schemes has been made the easier to encourage and attract private sector investment. Similarly, the rights of consumers and private investors have also been protected through these amendments.
Ajmal Wazir told that the cabinet has also approved a mechanism for signing of Memorandum of Understanding in public sector. According to the approved mechanism, prior approval of the cabinet has been made mandatory for all the MoUs involving financial implications in government funding.