PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet at its meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on Monday conditionally approved the upgradation of Upper Chitral to the status of a district.
However, the cabinet clarified that the decision would take effect after the lifting of the ban imposed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on changing revenue limits of districts across the country. The ECP has frozen the limits of the revenue units from Dec 22, 2017, till the completion of new delimitation of constituencies on the basis of the provisional results of the 2017 census for the next general elections to be held in July 2018.
The delimitation process is yet to start in the country.
The provincial cabinet in the context of powers entrusted to the province after 18th amendment also approved new comprehensive culture policy to promote regional languages, literature, culture, sports, Lok Virsa, exchange of cultural delegates at national, international level, regional art etc.
The cabinet also approved policy viz-a-viz issuance of lisences of restricted bores. To make the process of issuance of licenses transparent, an arms committee will be constituted at district level to be headed by Deputy Commissioners.
The committee will issue licenses after seeking approval from the competent authority within the monthly allocated quota.
The cabinet also okayed Rs10,000 as monthly stipend for prayers leaders of central mosques in the province. This decision will take effect from February 2018. The stipend will be given to prayers leaders having proper degrees from any of the five recognized boards of Deeni Madaris.