70th anniversary of bilateral relations: Photo exhibition opens to mark Pak-German ties

PESHAWAR: The GIZ Pakistan has launched a photo exhibition at the Peshawar Museum on the merged areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to mark the 70th anniversary of bilateral relations and 60th anniversary of development cooperation between Pakistan and Germany. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Health and Finance Taimur Saleem Khan Jhagra attended the event as a chief guest and inaugurated the exhibition. The representatives of the German Embassy, GIZ and officials of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa attended the event.

In his remarks, the minister said that it was a moment of pride for Peshawar Museum. He said this exhibition should serve as an opening door of the museum for the public.

He added that international celebrities had appreciated the Peshawar Museum. “The world travellers are now travelling to Peshawar and the PTI government has improved its face with projects like the famous Gor Khatri, Mahabat Khan Mosque renovation,” he maintained.

He added that the government renovated the historical sites including the house of famous Indian cinema actor late Dilip Kumar, which had been opened to the public.

The minister directed the KP Archaeology Department to hold more exhibitions in the museum and to show the rich culture and heritage of the province and merged districts to the world at large.

Jhagra added that Rs60 billion had been allocated for development projects of newly merged districts. The allocation for the merged districts would reach Rs100 billion this year If other provinces provided the promised funds, he added. He added that Rs5 billion had been allocated in the current fiscal year to improve and upgrade basic health units in erstwhile Fata.

Jhagra said the people of the merged districts were also being provided free medical facilities under the Sehat Card Scheme. This facility would be upgraded to Sehat Card plus from first January 2022, he added. The minister said Peshawar was one of oldest living cities and invited the tourists to promote its culture. He said the former tribal areas were merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2018, adding that the photo exhibition would give an insight into this.

Dr Deichmann, chargé affair of the German Embassy in Islamabad, said that the development cooperation between Germany and Pakistan continued for decades with friendly and trustful political, economic and cultural ties.

He added that to date Germany had invested around 3.5 billion euros in its development partnership with Pakistan. In her closing remarks, Stoyanka Stich, Cluster Coordinator at GIZ Pakistan confirmed GIZ commitment to promote local governance reform process in the country.

She stated that GIZ was working with the provincial and local governments to promote an efficient, transparent and participatory approach focused on strengthening institutional capacity and improved governance in health and education for better service delivery to the local people in merged areas.