January 11, 2002	Friday	Shawwal 26, 1422

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KOHAT, Jan 10: The NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah has pledged judicious distribution of the resources while assuring expeditious development and welfare of the people.

He was addressing a public gathering on the premises of the newly-constructed government degree college during his visit to Lachi on Wednesday.

He said development of backward areas was one of the government’s prime responsibilities and it would be its endeavour that each area had its due share in the developmental strategy.

The governor said that no country the world over could claim that it would resolve all the problems of their people. Rather it was the resources which were promised for the welfare of the people. The present government has limited resources, however it has prioritized things which would be resolved in a phased manner, he added.

Referring to the new district government system, Mr Iftikhar said that it had involved the people at the gross roots level in the decision-making process. In the past, the government servants were not accountable to anyone and were “all in all” to decide the future of the people. The development strategy used to be prepared in Peshawar and Islamabad. However, in the new system the government servants “have been made responsible and accountable” at district level to the will of the people. The people’s representatives “have been empowered to settle problems at local level.”

The governor said his government had decided to empower the district governments to make recruitment and posting at their respective district up to high level schools. Similarly, in health sector such powers had been delegated to the district governments from grade 1 to 15.

He said that with the creation of district cadres, the process of posting and transfer in health and education sectors had been done away with.

The governor said that the government had made an attempt to change the entire system. The success of any system, he said, depended upon the sincerity and devotion of the runners of that system.

However, he called upon the elected representatives to discourage favouritism, and instead work for the supremacy of merit so that the new experiment could become a real success. He said the power of the elected representatives had been enhanced to supervise, run and look after the government schools.

The role of education department had been curtailed and each school will have a committee to take decision regarding the affairs of that school, since the education department failed to improve the system.

However, the government had decided to entrust the affairs of public sector schools to the elected representatives under the new mechanism. He said that with passage of time the new system would get further strength. He lamented all those terming the new system the system of NGOs. They should see for themselves whether it was a system of real elected representatives which was in consonance with the people’s mood or otherwise.