PESHAWAR: Caretaker Chief Minister Muhammad Azam Khan on Thursday said that steps were being taken to secure the constitutional rights of merged districts. He was speaking at the third-round of the weekly sessions for the people of merged districts at the Chief Minister's House here. The chief minister has started the process in a bid to resolve the issues facing the people from the newly-merged districts.
He said that the issue regarding nonpayment of funds for newly merged districts had been taken up with the federal government. "People of the merged districts have been suffering for the last four decades and the caretaker provincial government was not only well aware of this but also making every possible effort to resolve their issues," he added. He assured that all available resources would be utilised to complete the ongoing development projects in the newly merged districts.
A large number of people of the merged districts hailing from different walks of life attended the session and apprised the chief minister of the issues faced by them. The majority of those issues were related to education, health, road infrastructure and other sectors of public service delivery. Senior Member Board of Revenue, Administrative secretaries of provincial departments and other relevant officials were also present on the occasion.
The chief minister listened to their issues attentively and directed the quarters concerned for necessary steps to resolve those issues on priority basis. The elders of merged districts lauded the initiative of the caretaker chief minister to hold weekly sessions with the people of merged districts, and said that this initiative will prove to be helpful in resolving the long-standing problems of the tribal people. They said that merger of erstwhile Fata into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was, no doubt, a good step, but the newly merged districts were still suffering from multiple challenges needing special attention of both the federal and provincial governments. They also demanded of the federal government that development funds of the merged districts, including those of the Accelerated Implementation Programme (AIP), should be released without any further delay.