PESHAWAR, Oct 14: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister has granted financial autonomy to the provincial services tribunal.

This was stated by the CM`s spokesman Shiraz Paracha.

He told reporters at the Peshawar Press Club on Monday that the tribunal earlier used to depend on the finance department for running its financial matters. However, he said after getting financial autonomy it would be able to utilise its funds independently.

Mr Paracha said the provincial government had also decided to establish a mega city near Abbottabad and for this purpose it had approved acquisition of 4,000 kanal land at Tamthor.

The chief minister`s spokesman said another mega city would be established on Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway near Karnal Sher Khan interchange and efforts were on to acquire 80,000 kanal land. He was confident that the proposed mega city would be modern than Islamabad and Bahria Town.

Mr Paracha said the provincial government had decided in principle to pay salarles to all government employees through branches of commercial banks. He said a large number of employees particularly class-IV workers and police were still getting their salaries in cash.

He said for the provision of security to polio workers, the government had decided to recruit more volunteers and that an amount of Rs40 million had been approved in this regard. -APP