November 28, 2002	Thursday	Ramazan 22, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 27: The Ministry of Women Development, Social Welfare and Special Education has criticized the local governments for not extending their cooperation in implementing the ministry’s projects.

The ministry secretary, Parveen Qadir Agha, on Wednesday, briefed Neelofer Bakhtiar, the newly appointed adviser to the prime minister on women development, social welfare and special education, on different projects launched by the ministry.

She said a number of projects had been started for the welfare of women in distress, disabled children and other vulnerable sections of the society. She, however, said the ministry was facing problems like lack of cooperation by the local governments.

Ms Agha said a project, “Tawana Pakistan”, through which 230,000 school-going girls of 5-9 years age group would be provided a meal at school, was being implemented in three districts — two in Sindh and one in Punjab.

She added that the local governments, which were directly involved in these projects, considered the ministry’s programmes as encroachment on their authority.

She said when the help of district Nazim, Lodhran, was sought for the implementation of one such project, he refused to listen to the ministry people.

Ms Agha said unless the district governments actively participated in implementing the Tawana Pakistan programme, it was not possible for the ministry to meet its targets in this regard.

Another ministry official told the advisor to the prime minister that most of the schools visited by the special teams of the ministry found discrepancies in the total number of students registered and those attending the classes.

He added that the district coordination officers did not offer much cooperation to the ministry in implementing its projects.

Ms Bakhtiar, speaking on the occasion, said she would offer every possible help in the successful implementation of Tawana Pakistan programme.

She said: “I know the bureaucracy keeps the federal ministers with political backgrounds at an arms length and does not allow them to assert their positions, however, I will like to be fully involved in the everyday affairs of the ministry.”