KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has said that the provincial government would support any move for merging FATA with the KP and they will welcome the tribal people if they chose to join KP. However, he said that the people of FATA must themselves decide their fate in this regard and any effort for imposing a decision from outside would neither be accepted by the tribal people nor supported by the KP government.
He expressed these views while talking to the outgoing Consul General of the United States at Peshawar, Jon F Danilowiez, who called on him at CM Secretariat on Monday and discussed matters of mutual interests particularly those related to bilateral cooperation, development, education, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Afghan refugees.
Impressed by the performance of the present Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Government, the Consul General said that outcome of the provincial government's initiatives were quite apparent in the provincial capital city and other parts of the province. He termed the newly-introduced local government system of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa a real achievement towards the devolution of powers at gross root level and remarked that a positive change has also been noticed in other sectors including improvement in the security situation.
Appreciating the KP government's strong commitment for undermining corrupt practices in the government departments the US diplomat hoped that accountability process initiated in the province would yield positive results in the context of good governance and smooth delivery of services. Eulogising the KP government cooperation in implementation of various US sponsored education projects and development operations in the province, Danilowiez said that strong bilateral ties between the two countries had further built up the confidence of the people.
The Consul General also discussed affairs of Afghan refugees and political future of FATA and hoped that frequent interactions between the two states at certain levels would help improve Pak-Afghan bilateral relations. On this occasion, the Chief Minister Pervez Khattak said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa always opposed presence of unregistered Afghan refugees in the province, saying it caused serious law and order issues.
He said that the people of the province are also in favour of repatriation of Afghan refugees as normalcy was restored in most parts of Afghanistan. He, however, said that the restoration of peace in whole of Afghanistan was a must for a stable and strong Afghanistan and her neighbouring countries as well.
Referring to the KP government's endeavours for bringing the change under the PTI manifesto during the last two years, the Chief Minister said that remarkable progress has been made to reform the whole system and the people of the province have acknowledged such transformation and once again expressed confidence by voting to the PTI in recently held local government elections, he added. He said that the PTI-led coalition government in the province was striving hard for introducing such automated public service system which could not be interfered into by any political influence.
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