The NWFP government has decided to provide interest-free loans to its poultry farmers and hopefully the process of disbursement of these loans will be started within next few months.
NWFP Livestock Minister Qari Mahmood stated this, while addressing the national poultry and livestock conference here on Friday. Qari Mahmood said that experience of extending interest-free loans is running successfully in the province. "We are already providing interest-free loans of Rs 60,000 to the tea farmers for five years," he added.
He said that Pakistan is spending Rs 22 billion on the import of tea and in order to meet local requirements of tea, an area of 150,000 acres is required, while NWFP has 500,000 acres land feasible for tea cultivation. He said that the NWFP government is facing shortage of resources. He said Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz recently visited Peshawar and promised to extend grant.
He said that for Karachi Rs 40 billion were provided, while NWFP is being ignored.
He said that the NWFP government has taken various steps for the betterment of society. Women university and women medical college has been established, while the development budget has been increased by 40 percent.
He said that the NWFP government is preparing new service structure for veterinary doctors.
He said that the international donor agencies have appreciated the performance of the NWFP government. Speaking on the occasion, Professor Dr Manzoor Ahmad Qureshi highlighted the objectives of the conference. Punjab Law Minister Basharat Raja was the chief guest at the inaugural session of the conference. Dr Aleaster Lewin, Khalid Naeem Khwaja, Sharif Asif, Tariq Javaid, Hamid Jalil, Nasir Javaid, Qazi Jibran, Sohail Saleem and Dr Irshad also spoke on the occasion.