DLP Report
PESHAWAR
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Monday launched a performance agreement framework aimed at strengthening accountability, transparency and public service delivery, with the Health Department and the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) and Polio Eradication Programme becoming the first entities to commit to measurable performance targets.
The agreements were signed at a ceremony attended by senior government officials as part of the Chief Minister’s Good Governance Roadmap, which seeks to link departmental performance with defined targets, timelines and monitoring mechanisms.
The framework was launched under the leadership of Chief Minister Muhammad Sohail Afridi. The agreements were signed between Chief Secretary Shahab Ali Shah and the respective administrative heads of the departments, while the relevant provincial ministers acted as witnesses. Additional Chief Secretary (General) Muhammad Abid Majeed and Additional Chief Secretary Planning and Development Lt (Retd) Islam Zaib also attended the ceremony.
Under the first agreement, the Health Department committed to a series of reforms aimed at improving primary and secondary healthcare services across the province.
According to the agreement, the department will recruit and deploy at least 500 additional doctors to Basic Health Units (BHUs) and Rural Health Centres (RHCs) to ensure that no primary healthcare facility remains without a doctor.
The department also pledged to make 250 BHUs and RHCs fully operational for round-the-clock childbirth services and to expand and upgrade Basic and Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (BEmONC and CEmONC) facilities to improve maternal and neonatal healthcare.
In addition, 62 secondary healthcare hospitals will be handed over to professional service providers as part of hospital management reforms aimed at improving operational efficiency and the quality of healthcare services.
A second performance agreement focused on polio eradication was also signed by the Health Department, the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) and the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI).
Under the agreement, the Health Department committed to deploying 150 additional doctors to BHUs and RHCs in southern districts, while the EOC pledged to reduce the number of missed children during vaccination campaigns to below 10,000 and achieve negative environmental polio samples in Peshawar, Bannu and North Waziristan during two consecutive campaigns.
The EPI also committed to maintaining the functionality of more than 97 per cent of fixed vaccination centres and increasing routine immunisation coverage to 85pc.
Addressing the ceremony, Health Minister Khaleeq ur Rehman said the provincial government had accorded the health sector top priority and allocated a record budget, but acknowledged that significant work remained to improve healthcare services and address the province’s growing disease burden.
Chief Secretary Shahab Ali Shah said expanding healthcare coverage, ensuring the availability of doctors at primary healthcare facilities, strengthening maternal and neonatal care and improving underperforming hospitals remained among the government’s immediate priorities.
Referring to the outsourcing of hospital management, he said improvements at Mishti Mela Hospital in Orakzai district demonstrated the effectiveness of professional management in enhancing healthcare delivery.
The chief secretary said the new performance agreement framework introduced a governance model based on measurable performance and accountability, enabling the government to monitor departmental progress through clearly defined indicators while encouraging improved public service delivery.
