Govt cheating all federating units on CPEC: KP CM

PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has said that concentration of power in one hand breeds corruption, irregularities, and nepotism and that was why he had devolved all the powers and authority to strengthen the institutions.

He was talking to a 16-member delegation of faculty members from the National Management Course at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat, said a handout.On a question about the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the chief minister said the federal government was cheating all the federating units on the vital projects of CPEC.

He reminded the CPEC project was conceptually initiated by the Musharraf-led government. “But when the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz formed the government, it initiated different projects in the Punjab, keeping the rest of the federating units in the dark,” he added.

After knowing the factual position and the noise created by the political forces, he said the prime minister convened an All Parties Conference and made a commitment with the political forces that the Western Route would be an integral part of the CPEC. “Our agitation was based on logic. We wanted that the corridor should pass through KP and Balochistan, the underdeveloped parts of the country. The Chinese government also initiated it to develop its backward province,” he added.

He demanded that the Western Route should be initiated and completed first and be notified as an integral part of the CPEC. The chief minister made it clear that he was not against the central route but when it comes to the Western Route, he would never give up.

He said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had ensured that a primary school must have six rooms and as many teachers. The provincial government recruited 40,000 teachers to overcome the shortage of teachers in the public sector educational institutions, he added.

Regarding the local government system, he said his government devolved power and authority to the grassroots and empowered the district government system to deliver. The provincial government transferred Rs33 billion to the local government system, he added.

The chief minister also mentioned a number of projects the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led government had introduced in various sectors of the province.