Govt to defeat conspiracies against ex-FATA: PM

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Monday the government was fully cognisant of the efforts being made by some external elements to create unrest in the merged areas of erstwhile FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas), and would defeat such conspiracies in cooperation with the local populace.

He, however, added that in order to achieve this objective, the people of the merged areas should not only be fully kept informed about the efforts regarding development projects and resolution of their problems but should also be involved in the whole process by all means.

The Prime Minister expressed these views while presiding over a meeting held here to review the matters relating to energy, higher education, health and development projects in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), especially the pace of development projects in the merged areas.

The meeting—which was attended by Energy Minister Umar Ayub Khan, Chief Minister KP Mehmood Khan, Special Assistant to PM Nadeem Babar, provincial Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Khan Jhagra, federal secretaries of Finance and Planning, chief secretary KP, Chairman Higher Education Commission Tariq Binori and other senior officers—reviewed implementation of the development projects in the merged areas and the progress made so far.

The Prime Minister described the people of merged areas as “much aware” and said the development and progress of merged areas and bringing them at par with other areas of the country was the government’s foremost priority.

Khan was told that in order to ensure uninterrupted progress on the development projects in merged areas, the provision of required funds from the finance ministry had been ensured. It was told during the meeting that the federal government was committed to immediate provision of funds for further speeding up the implementation of development projects in the merged areas.

Regarding the efforts for providing uninterrupted electricity supply to the merged areas, the Prime Minister was informed that the energy ministry had focused on strengthening weak transmission infrastructure in the merged areas.HEC Chairman Tariq Binori briefed the Prime Minister on the financial matters and requirements of the universities as well as the HEC strategy regarding the efforts to deal with such matters. The meeting decided to hold an exclusive meeting on the subject in the next few days so that the proposed HEC strategy could be finalised.

Khan said as investment in education especially in higher education was the foremost priority of the government, all possible efforts would be made to fulfil the just requirements of the universities.

He directed the secretary Planning Commission for fulfilling Rs 5 billion requirements of the KP’s big hospitals for the provision of uninterrupted and quality healthcare facilities in the province.