Minister says Malakand included in CPEC due to JI efforts

CHITRAL: Khyber Pakhtun-khwa Minister for Finance Muzaffar Said has claimed that the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) leadership had compelled the federal government to include Malakand Division in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

“The region has been dropped earlier but the JI leadership played an effective role to include it in the game-changer project,” he told the local representatives here.

He said the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor had special significance for Chitral due to its proximity to China and Central Asian States.

The minister said that the coalition government in the province had taken a number of steps which were unprecedented.

Earlier, the minister attended a briefing in the office of deputy commissioner Chitral about the status of development process in the district, which was attended by District Nazim Maghfirat Shah, Chitral DC Irshad Sodhar and DPO Syed Ali Akbar Shah.

He was told that  both
the development and non-salary budget of the devolved departments had been cut
by half after the devolution
of power process two
years ago creating  myriad of issues for the district government.