February 27, 2003	Thursday	Zul Hijjah 25, 1423

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PESHAWAR, Feb 26: NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah has expressed deep concern over kidnapping and car-snatching cases in certain areas and said: “We have to take serious action to bring the criminals to the court of law.”

Presiding over a meeting at Governor House on Tuesday in which the working of Frontier Constabulary was discussed, he said the FC contingent postings should be made in areas where dens of criminals exist, so that its special organizational structure could be used to eliminate them.

He stressed the need of further streamlining the Frontier Constabulary to make it more active and effective. “We have to derive maximum results from the limited manpower,” he said.

He also urged eliminating the chances of poppy cultivation, saying no leniency should be tolerated in this connection.

Referring to the provincial government’s decision to recruit 300 police Jawans, Mr Shah said once this process was complete, the 400 FC men, at present deputed to aid the police force, would be withdrawn.

He promised effective measures to take care of the transport and telecommunication needs of the force.

The governor also appreciated the proposal to shift the FC headquarters to Regi Lalma or Hayatabad townships and expressed the hope that the matter will be seriously considered by the quarters concerned.

Earlier, IG FC, Israr Shinwari, highlighted the role and organizational structure of Frontier Constabulary in detail.

He said the force was made up of jawans belonging to 23 different tribes and sub-tribes recruited through a special process.

The performance of the force, he remarked, was acknowledged and appreciated throughout the country.

The meeting, among others, was attended by Chief Secretary Shakil Durrani, Secretary Home Syed Mehmood Shah, Inspector General of Police Muhammad Saeed Khan, Secretary to Governor Sahibzada Saeed Ahmed and Additional Secretary to Governor Sikander Qayyum while the Commandant Frontier Constabulary conducted the briefing.

WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS: Addressing the inaugural ceremony of an exhibition of products by women entrepreneurs here on Tuesday, the governor stressed the need of promoting export-based, locally available raw material as well as adopting modern marketing mechanism.

There should be no compromise on standard and quality of the exportable items, he said.

He also called for making best use of agricultural produce, especially through the process of value-addition.

He said countries where raw material does not exist earn billions of dollars through export of valued-added items by importing the raw material.

Nelufar Sami, a woman entrepreneur, said business women used to work only in certain major cities in the past, but the trend had changed, and a large number of women in the NWFP were also engaged in this sector.