PESHAWAR: Provincial Minister for Labour and Culture Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Shaukat Yousafzai said on Thursday that concrete measures would be made for the socio-economic uplift of Shangla district.

He said that Shangla district was ignored by the past government and its youth was deprived of education, but now the government was laying a network of schools and colleges in this area to provide quality education to its youth.

He expressed these views during a meeting with delegations of various union councils of Shangla district at his office.

PTI Malakand Division Senior Vice President Sadid-ur-Rehman, former Provincial Minister Malik Aurangzeb, Malik Gulzada were also present on the occasion.

Shaukat Yousafzai regretted that Shangla had lagged behind in the race for development in 70 years despite the fact that it had great potential for tourism.

He said Prime Minister Imran Khan and Chief Minister KP Mehmood Khan took great interest in promoting the promotion of tourism, adding that the effective measures would be taken for exploring the tourism potential of the area which would usher in its socio-economic development.

He said that forests were a precious asset and he had requested the Prime Minister to approve gas supply in Shangla to protect forests in the area.

He said that Lari Pirkhana Hospital is in the final stages of completion and added that Olandar hospital would also be upgraded.

He said that the process for granting tehsil status to Kana had already started and a site for construction of Degree College in Shapur has also been selected on which work would start soon.