NWFP Senior Minister Sirajul Haq who also holds the portfolio of finance department, has expressed satisfaction over the decisions taken in the meeting of Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) chaired by the Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and expressed the confidence that federal government would focus special attention on development of NWFP in backdrop of its immense level of backwardness and poverty prevalent over here.
He said that his government wanted speedy development of the province and ameliorating lot of its poor masses and we would welcome any good decision in this way.
However he said that judicious and transparent use of resources as well as timely and quality completion of the schemes was must after its approval as he said all such developmental decisions were restricted to paper works only and implementation task was put in the doldrums in the past.
Sirajul Haq said that he had also diverted attention of the Prime Minister and other participants of Ecnec meeting towards unnecessary delay in construction work of 450 KM Nowshera-Chakdara-Chitral (NCC) Highway and underlined the need for its speedy completion wherein he was given assurance of positive response in this respect.
He said that this highway envisaged paramount importance with tourism point of view besides its vital role for national development.
He said that special developmental measures and allocation of maximum resources were required for NWFP due to recent horrendous earthquake while great expectations have been attached to the Prime Minister to give attention on plight of the province. He hoped that federal government would continue with sincere and solid steps in this regard.
Meanwhile the Ecnec meeting held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz at Islamabad approved ten mega projects relating to improvement of roads, national drainage, industries, access to justice, health, education and other social sectors.
Under these umbrella schemes, amounting to trillion of rupees, Rs 30 billion have been allocated for DERA-II programme while Rs 52 billion have been set aside for four lane 90 KM Hasan Abdal to Manshera Highway and Rs 60 crore for Karnal Sher Khan Shaheed Cadet College Swabi similarly colossal amounts have been earmarked for overall development and improvement of social sectors in NWFP under these ten mega schemes.
By-pass roads would also be constructed for Haripur, Havelian, Abbottabad and other big cities along with Hasan Abdal to Mansehra Highway that would be constructed as per international criteria.