KP to get more caretaker ministers ‘within days’

• CM Dost says recovery plan to include infrastructure development, rehabilitation and reconstruction plan and systematic extension of public sector institutions to seven newly-merged districts

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Caretaker Chief Minister Dost Mohammad Khan hinted at extension in the provincial cabinet within days, saying his government has already formed a committee/task force to interact with the federal government for the implementation of the overall recovery plan for the newly-merged seven districts to the province.

He was presiding over a high-level meeting on process and implementation FATA reforms at the CM Secretariat here in Peshawar. Finance Minister Abdur Rauf Khattak, chief secretary, police chief, and administrative secretaries of departments concerned and others attended the meeting.

The chief minister said that the overall recovery plan would include the infrastructure development, the overall rehabilitation and reconstruction plan and the systematic extension of the public sector institutions to the seven newly-merged districts. He said that he himself as a caretaker chief minister would head the task force for interaction with the federal government in order to put the implementation phase smoothly.

Other members of the task force will include the chief secretary, the police chief and relevant administrative secretaries. The task force would look to the legal anomalies, will address to these anomalies in order to properly take care of the expected vacuum and the subsequent repercussion thereof.

The chief minister said that the name of nomenclature cannot be the solution but more needed were the financial injections and, the installation of the physical infrastructure devastated by different calamities. The federal government had already promised a trillion rupees package for over a period of 10 years for the merged districts. Each year, the transfers will stand as 10 billion rupees annually.

He said that the people and the forces suffered heavily and therefore needed to be mainstreamed. He said that the transition should be smooth and all segment of the society should contribute to the smooth transition. He said that there should be a multilayered approach to be executed by the administration with backing of the armed forces.

The donors help will be of greater importance he added. He suggested that working in isolation by the institutions would further complicate the entire recovery plan for the merged districts. Therefore, he said there should be disciplined and well-organised working relationship among the institutions. He said that the ground reality was the best guide for moving forward in this regard.

He said that his government wanted a flawless damaged control plan, offering his services to work voluntarily for giving relief to the public and properly mainstreaming the tribal to be the genuine and end beneficiaries. For the damaged assessment, he said that he has already ordered the resources required for the infrastructure development and extension of public sector institutions for an early benefit of the people of seven merged districts.