Progress of uplift programmes: Senate body for setting up monitoring cell in FATA Secretariat

Senate Standing Committee on States and Frontier Regions has urged for setting-up a monitoring cell in (FATA) Secretariat to look into the progress of development programmes. The committee meeting chaired by Senator Muhammad Saleh Shah was held here on Wednesday to discuss the Protected Relief and Recovery Operation Programme of 2013-2015 in FATA including school feeding, nutrition and food livelihood.
FATA Social Cohesion and Peace Building Programme also came under discussion in the meeting. The committee was told that the development programmes are being conducted in six agencies of FATA which included Bajaur, Mohmand, Khyber, Orakzai, Kurram and South Waziristan, besides the development programmes, relief work and infrastructural support in the area. The committee members asked the officials of the SAFRON and FATA Secretariat, whether we take the ratio of population and area as criteria for distributing funds. The Ministry officials informed the committee that the uplift programmes are based on the security conditions, availability of roads and schools in the area.
The officials said that a total of $12.327 million were spent on a number of projects for social cohesion and restoration of social services and infrastructure by different donor agencies including United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), World health Organisation (WHO), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Senators laid emphasis on involving local population of FATA in the national mainstream for their socio-economic uplift. The committee was also briefed about the special seats reserved for FATA students in various medical and engineering colleges and universities of the country.
Minister for SAFRON (States and Frontier Regions) Abdul Qadir Baloch while briefing the committee on the situation of the Internally Displaced Person (IDPs) said that the government was providing all facilities to them. He said that the government has distributed Rs 4 billion among the IDPs of North Waziristan Agency. Scholarship programmes and political scholarship criteria for students belonging to FATA was also discussed.
The meeting was attended among others by Senator Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo, Senator Ahmed Hassan, Senator Mufti Abdul Sattar, Senator Sardar Muhammad Yaqoob Nasir, Senator Haji Ghulam Ali, Minister for States and Frontier Regions, Abdul Qadir Baloch, Secretary SAFRONP Jamali, Joint Secretary Tariq Hayat Khan, ACS FATA Azam Khan, D. G. Projects FATA Syed Imtiaz Hussain and Rashida Amir from World Food Programme.