PTI govt believes in press freedom: KP CM

NOWSHERA: Chief Minister Pervez Khattak said on Saturday that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government believed in the freedom of the press.

He was speaking at a ceremony at the Nowshera Press Club, where he distributed among the journalists the allotment letters of 10-marla plots at the Media Colony in Nowshera.

Pervez Khattak said that the media was the fourth pillar of the state and it played an important role in bridging the gap between the government and people.

“The PTI government attaches great value to the media for continuity of democracy and rule of law,” he added.

He said his government supported the press clubs across the province.

The chief minister said it was the top priorities of the government to provide relief to the common man. “We have taken several steps to make the province financially self-reliant,” he maintained.

Pervez Khattak said that his government believed in carrying out uplift projects across the province.

He said the government was spending Rs15 billion on the construction of embankments in Peshawar, Charsadda and Nowshera districts.  He said that work on flood prevention projects in Malakand, Hazara and Abbottabad would be launched shortly.  

“We have launched various projects to protect the flood-prone areas from floods,” he added.

He said the provincial government had recommended to the federal government to include in its Annual Development Programme (ADP) the construction of Peshawar-Attock-Khairabad bridge and reconstruction of Nowshera-Mardan Grand Trunk Road.

He said that PTI didn’t compromise on the rights of the province and increased the net hydel profit from Rs6 billion to Rs18 billion. He said Rs18 billion loans had been paid back to the federal government borrowed by the previous governments.

He said the provincial government had earmarked Rs126 billion for its Annual Development Programme.  

He said his government had presented a balanced budget of Rs603 billion for the fiscal 2017-18, adding it increased the education budget by 18 percent compared to the previous budget allocations for this sector and earmarked Rs27.91 billion for education.

He said that Rs49.27 billion were allocated for health, Rs4.35 billion for agriculture and Rs720 million were earmarked for sports, culture and tourism.

He said that reasonable allocations had been made for environment, forest, information and communications, public housing schemes and allowances for employees of government departments.