PESHAWAR:
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Caretaker Chief Minister Muhammad Azam Khan has said that the people of erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) have been facing multiple challenges for the last four decades and they deserve special attention now to bring them on a par with settled districts and address their deprivations.
While addressing the certificate distribution ceremony of skills development training for the youth of North Waziristan Tribal District on Monday, he stated that erstwhile FATA had been merged into K-P after the 25th constitutional amendment in 2018 but the province was still not getting the due shares of newly-merged districts in National Finance Commission (NFC) Award.
He added that the population of newly-merged districts is more than 5 million and they must get their due shares. Khan said that ever since he assumed the portfolio of the caretaker chief minister, he has been trying to resolve the issues of the merged districts and get their legitimate rights from the federal government, adding that merged districts’ issues have been taken up with the prime minister while several letters have also been written to the federal government to this end.
The chief minister, while expressing his resolve to get the due rights of the merged districts, said that he will continue efforts at all levels to get the legitimate rights of the merged districts. He remarked that the resources of the provincial government are very limited, but despite this, the caretaker government would utilise all available resources for the development of the merged districts.
He said that he had decided to listen to the issues of the people of ex-FATA, and the people from all over the tribal district can visit his office every Thursday to get their problems solved. The chief minister felicitated the newly-trained youngsters and urged them to utilise their newly-acquired skills for self-employment and work for the development and prosperity of their localities.
He also thanked Mari Petroleum Company, Sarhad Rural Support Programme (SRSP), and stakeholders concerned for imparting training to the youth of North Waziristan. He also urged other private companies working on the exploration of oil and gas fields in the province to take steps under their corporate social responsibility programme to impart skills and provide employment opportunities to the youth of the backward areas of the province.
Appreciating the role of the SPSP in improving the quality of life of the people in the backward areas of the province, the chief minister said that SRSP had been rendering valuable services in various fields with the participation of the community in less developed areas of the province for the past 34 years, adding that there has been significant improvement in the lives of the people of these areas because of the efforts of SRSP.
Source link: https://tribune.com.pk/story/2419347/special-focus-to-address-nmd-deprivations-cm-azam-khan