Net-profit, royalty on electricity, oil and gas: NWFP government reserves five percent receipts for uplift of districts concerned

The government of NWFP Tuesday reserved 5 per cent of the revenue generated from the power generation and royalty on oil and gas on the development of the district concerned. The decision in this regard was taken in a meeting of the provincial cabinet, which met here with Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti in the chair.
Members of the provincial cabinet and secretaries of all departments attended the meeting. Briefing the newsmen regarding the decisions taken during the meeting, NWFP Minister for Information, Mian Iftikhar Hussain said that half of the reserved development fund would be spent in concerned Tehsil of the project. The remaining amount would be spent on the over all development of the district concerned.
The provincial government in its annual budget 2007-08 announced five per cent of the receipt on power generation and oil and gas to be spent in the districts concerned. In this connection, a committee headed by the Chief Secretary was constituted to prepare strategy for the spending of the five per cent fund of such projects.
According to the Ministry of Natural Resources, the royalty on the oil and gas for the year 2008-08 was Rs 247.20 million, which will be spent on the development of the Tehsil Banda Daud Shah of Karak and Lachi of district Kohat. However, the spending has been linked with release from the federal government to the province.
The receipt would be spent on the development schemes relating to the provision of electricity, gas, drinking water, technical education and health facilities. The decision had been taken for the period of next five years. The cabinet also reviewed a report prepared by the Chief Conservator on the seizure of the illegally cut timber in the forests of Kohistan.
The report said that due to ban on forest cutting by federal government in 1993, the residents of Kohistan resorted to illegal cutting. The government took notice of the matter and seized the illegally cut timber. Presently, 24, 75,947 cubic feet timber was in the possession of the forest department.
The cabinet after review of the report pinpointed some faults and asked the committee to present the report to it after making corrections within one month. The provincial government of NWFP has urged federal government for bearing the expenses of wheat transportation from Gawadar Port to Karachi. The cabinet was told that the provincial government had already informed the Ministry of Minfa.
The provincial cabinets also approved the constitution of a Commission on the Status of Woman to review laws and abolished all discriminatory laws against women and provide equal opportunities of development to them. In this connection, the cabinet approved a draft bill presented in the meeting.
The commission would be comprised of 10 to 20 members and majority of its members would be women, while one member would also included from minorities. It would work for three years and would be headed by a chairperson with its Secretariat at the department of Social Welfare and Women Development. The administrative secretary of the department or additional secretary or Director of the Commission would be secretary of the body.
The commission will review government-initiated policies, programmes and projects in the context of the development of women and equal opportunities and will recommend suggestions in this regard.
It will also review all laws and rules and recommend amendments to prevent discrimination against women in legislation as guaranteed in the Constitution of Pakistan. It will also generate a data base on working and non-working women and with support of the government it will constitute different committees over the problems. The commission will also constitute district committees comprising seven to 10 members in all districts of the province. Two members of such committees would be from district council, which would be recommended by the concerned district nazim.