LAHORE: Chief Minister Usman Buzdar has approved hiring against 100,000 vacancies in various departments across the province.

The chief minister has also directed the civil administration to remove bottlenecks in the payment of salaries to ad hoc doctors.Speaking at a presser at the chief minister`s secretariat on Thursday, Special Assistant to Chief Minister on Information Hasaan Khawar said in first phase some 16,000 vacant posts would be filled in the school education department where 33,000 positions were lying vacant at present.

Mr Khawar said 1,200 vacant posts would be filled in the primary healthcare department, 2,900 in specialized healthcare, 2,600 in higher education, 3,500 as college teachers interns, 1,200 in civil defence, 4,300 in prisons department and 4,800 in revenue department. He said some over 12,000 vacancies would be filled in police and border military police.Mr Khawar said the chief minister had taken notice of the difficulties being faced by the doctors and ordered to pay their salaries without any hindrance.

He said the journey of progress had been started with 100,000 jobs and added that the chief minister had also directed to initiate necessary action to fill the posts lying vacant in housing, public health engineering, local government and other various departments.

The spokesman said transfer and posting on administrative grounds was the prerogative of the chief executive of the province and any officer, who would not perform, had no right to remain on his seat. He said the PTI did notbelieve in the politics of jobs.

Mr Khawar said the proscribed organization`s legal matters were dealt by the judiciary while administrative issues were the responsibility of the government. In order to maintain law and order, he said, the Punjab government had constituted a committee before the sit-in and took a step forward towards peace. He said five police officials were martyred in the line of duty and added that the government would facilitate and extend every help to the heirs of the martyrs.

`Our police officers and jawans should be appreciated rather criticising them,` he stressed.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs AllMuhammad Khan called on Chief Minister Usman Buzdar at his office to discuss important matters, including the law and order situation.

Law Minister Raja Basharat, chief secretary, ACS (Home) and the principal secretary to CM were also present.The chief minister said the national interest had been kept supreme by the government and everyone would have to lend a helping hand to make Pakistan a citadel of peace and harmony in the region.

He said matters were resolved by following the principles of prudence, statesmanship and maturity.

The participants also offered fateha for the police martyrs.