Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sardar Mahtab Ahmad Khan on Friday announced the launch of an interest free loans scheme for FATA people through M/S Akhuwat, for which Rs 500 million as credit would be provided to the Akhuwat by the FATA Secretariat, Peshawar.
He said that from this money skilled people from all the tehsils of the tribal agencies would be provided interest free loans amounting to Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000 very easily.
The Chairman of M/S Akhuwat Dr. Muhammad Amjad Saqib and Secretary Law and order FATA Shakil Qadir signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) during a function arranged at the Governor’s House, Peshawar on Friday. The function was also attended by FATA Senators, FATA parliamentarians, elite of all the tribal agencies, elders and journalists.
Addressing the function the Governor Sardar Mahtab Ahmad Khan categorically stated that the FATA people had same right on the public money as the people of other areas.
He said the road to peace in the region goes through FATA where the gallant tribal people were fighting for the stability and defence of the country side by side with the Pakistan Army and security forces.
Governor Sardar Mahtab Ahmad Khan said more than 100,000 families were displaced and took refuge in different IDP camps and with their relatives in areas of Peshawar, Kohat and the rest of Pakistan. Their homes in the agency were either occupied or destroyed by the miscreants, he added.
He said that the return of the refugees was the government’s first priority. He said over 30,000 families had been returned to their homes and the remaining would also be sent back to their homes with honour by August of this year.
He said developmental work in health, education, irrigation, electricity and roads sectors had been initiated and much more would be spent on the reconstruction of the damaged facilities.
The governor stated that the Pakistan Army after successfully launching the operations Zarb-e-Azb, Khyber-1 and Khyber-II had completely destroyed hideouts of the militants and had touched the heights of gallantry, bravery and professional standards, which would be written with golden words in the global history.
Those operations were very necessary for the restoration of peace and stability in the region especially in FATA that would be remembered as a military strategy in the military institutions the world over.
The governor said with the Akhuwat scheme the FATA skilled men and women would be provided interest free micro level loans up to the tune of Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000 to enable them to support their families through small businesses.
He said a new scheme entitled Interest Free Micro Lending Activities to Support Small Scale Entrepreneurs in FATA would be started through which small loans would be provided to the people of FATA.
He declared that no political recommendations would be required to get the same loans. He said both male and female skilled people would get benefit of the Akhuwat scheme.
Earlier, the Chairman of M/S Akhuwat told the participants that M/S Akhuwat had so for provided interest free loans amounting to Rs16 billion to more than 800,000 poor and deserving families. He said those loans were given for small businesses that had enabled the people to earn livelihood for their families.
He said the recovery percentage of the Akhuwat was 99.5 in Pakistan. He said the Akhuwat would open its offices in the tehsils of the tribal agencies and would start provision of interest free micro loans to the people.
Later, a memorandum of understanding (MOU) was also signed between the FATA Secretariat and M/S Akhuwat for Rs 500 million credit.