Federal govt vows all assistance to merged districts

PESHAWAR: A high-level meeting to review the social and economic needs of the merged districts of erstwhile Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (Fata) was held Wednesday under the chairmanship of Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs, Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh.

KP Minister for Finance Taimur Saleem Khan Jhagra, Adviser to Prime Minister for Establishment Mohammad Shehzad Arbab, Federal Secretary Finance Naveed Kamran Baloch and other relevant senior officials attended the meeting.

Giving a presentation, Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Khan Jhagra, briefed the meeting about the financial requirements of the merged districts.

He said the Fata Development Funds would be utilized for the development of the social sector, particularly, health and education of the former tribal agencies, besides improving road and electricity infrastructure in the area.

The prime minister’s adviser on finance informed the meeting that the federal government would extend all possible assistance to erstwhile Fata to fulfil its needs and support Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in its endeavours to work for the social and economic development of the merged districts of Fata.

He assured the meeting that the Ministry of Finance would timely process releasing of funds for the merged districts.

The meeting was informed that the federal government had disbursed sufficient funds on the rehabilitation of temporarily displaced persons (TDPs) of the former tribal agencies.

After considerable deliberation, the meeting agreed on allocating funds for merged districts in upcoming federal and provincial budgets for the fiscal year, 2019-20 to fulfil the social and economic needs of erstwhile Fata on priority basis until the finalization of National Finance Commission Award.