Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervez Khattak has said that borders touching Afghanistan are not safe and without securing these borders the cities can’t be made safe for people.
This, he said while talking to Ms. Joanna Reid, Head of DFID, who along with her delegation called on the CM at Chief Minister Secretariat in Peshawar today.
In her introductory call DFID Head lauded the commitment and engagement of the provincial government. “I am very excited by your remarkable achievements” she maintained.
Explaining security situation in the province, the CM said that entry points at Miran Shah, Angoradda and Torkham were open for any sort of movement and terrorists involved in the recent Charsadda incident came from across the border. He elaborated that army, police and provincial government were on same page against terrorism. Adding that the provincial government was implementing directives issued by the Federal government and there was no problem with federal government in this regard. The CM termed operation Zarb-e-azab as effective in clearing FATA from terrorists. “Suicide bombing incidents have dropped extremely as there is no hide out for the training of terrorists”, he remarked.
Briefing the DFID team about reforms strategy of the provincial government Khattak said that government was bringing transparency in every department to eliminate corruption to change the system as he added that people had voted only for change. He went on to say that every sector was changing, reforms were continued in education, health etc. “New industries policy has been announced which offers 5% concession to the investors.”
The CM said that a number of laws including RTI had been passed to make things open for the people.
He told the delegation that government was focusing throughout the province on the welfare of common people to solve their problems. That is why police, health and education were given priority “Steps were taken to make police station as model centres and autonomy had been given to DHQ hospitals to facilitate common men, he added. He said that performance of the doctors was being monitored which he said, would bring a change.
He said that all departments had devolved to district level and 30% of the development funds had also been shifted to local government. “Now for the first time in the history of the province cleanliness of the villages is also initiated”, he remarked.
The CM informed the delegation that the district government, tehsil government and village councils all had their own allocated funds and demarcated areas of work.