NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani has underlined the need for rehabilitation of social infrastructure including road communication, education, health, business, forests, agriculture and food sectors as these sectors had been under tremendous pressure because of the influx of Afghan refugees. The people of frontier province offered tremendous sacrifices in the Afghan war.
We have been host to three million afghan refugees for the last three decades. Before the afghan influx the social sectors were instable and it was not only able to provide services to its own population but with the afghan refugees it has been bearing the burden of hundred percent over and above.
This, he stated, while talking to Sardar Yar Mohammad Rind, Federal Minister for State and Safron who called on him at Frontier's House, Peshawar on Tuesday.
Durrani said that although Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal's (MMA) government was going all out to store the surface water resources to use it for making the barren lands cultivable yet it was more needed that the federal government should initiate projects in frontier province that was otherwise the share of the province in the national development strategy. He said, the present system had weaknesses that needed to be removed.
He said that the presence of afghan refugees had increased the poverty in the province and therefore, frontier province deserved federal assistance. He said frontier has been the worst sufferer and the main victim of afghan issue. Therefore, it stayed warranted by all measures that it should be the main beneficiary because of its sufferings in the Afghan crisis.
He said that the people of Frontier Province shared every thing with their Afghan brethren even in the recent elections; the Frontier government had better arrangements for the one thousand polling stations in Frontier Province.
The chief minister also underlined the need for the proper use of aid money and should be given to the areas that suffered the most.
The chief minister also indicated that the loophole in the co-ordination between the federal and provincial agencies should be removed so that the projects of the provinces should go through without any unnecessary gate keeping as in most of the cases, the gatekeepers caused the undesirable delay and in the process, the people suffered.
He said that at provincial level, the MMA government has discouraged such mechanism causing miseries to the people. He said that the donors' and national commission for human development also appreciated the services given by MMA government.
The federal minister appreciated the sacrifices of Frontier Province and assured that the system would be made a transparent one and the filtering of the projects would be expedited.
He assured that there would be no misunderstanding in the federal and provincial agencies and there would be good working relationship between them as the ultimate desire was to provide efficient services to the people.