PESHAWAR: A meeting regarding Panahgahs (Shelter Homes) and Darul-Amans (Women Crisis Centers) was held here on Tuesday with Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan in the chair.
The meeting reviewed progress on the implementation of chief minister’s directions on the subject matter issued in the last meeting. Besides Members Provincial Assembly Dr Sumaira Shams, Secretary Social Welfare Zulfiqar Ali Shah, Director Social Welfare Habib Afridi and other concerned authorities attended the meeting.
Briefing the participants of the meeting about Darul-Amans, it was informed that presently eight Darul-Amans were fully functioned in various districts of the province, work on the establishment of Darul-Aman at Lower Dir is in progress whereas Darul-Aman at Kohat is being upgraded. It was further informed that as per the directions of the chief minister all the male staff in Darul Amans except watchmen, had been replaced with female ones whereas 72 number of new vacancies are being created to overcome the deficiency of staff in Darul-Amans, adding that advisory committee for all the Darul-Amans have been notified and uniform food manual for all the Darul-Amans has also been put in place.
It was decided in principle in the meeting to establish Darul-Amans in District D.I Khan, Buner, Nowshehra and Swabi as well. Briefing the meeting about Panahgahs in the province it was apprised that the provincial government had inked an agreement with Pakistan Baitul Mal for the establishment and operation of eight number of Panahgahs with two in the provincial capital Peshawar and one ach at divisional headquarters adding that out of which four are already been functional and so far about 97,000 people have availed facilities in those panahgahs.
It was noted that the remaining four panahgahs would be made functional by September this year and added that hiring of staff, purchase of vehicles and other necessary equipments for these panahgahs had been completed.
The meeting was informed that rules have been approved under the panahgahs Act 2020, while work on the constitution of boards for those panahgahs is also underway. The chief minister directed the quarter concerned to include a political and philanthropists in the boards as members so that better administration of panahgahs could be ensured. The chief minister also directed the authorities concerned to ensure implementation of uniform food manual in Darul-Amans and said that teams should visit to Darul-Amans and submit report in this regard.
He further directed the authorities concerned to submit proposals for the establishment of training centers for the rehabilitation and skills development of drug addicts in order to make them useful citizens. He also directed that the better quality of food must be ensured under “Koi Bhooka Na Soye Program” and concrete steps be taken for the extension of this program to divisional headquarters of the province.
Mahmood Khan termed establishment of Panahgahs as an integral part of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s vision of a welfare state and said that the provincial government was taking concrete steps for the effective and better management of those panahgahs in order to facilitate maximum deserving people.