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PESHAWAR, June 19: Federal Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao has accused the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government of not spending development funds among all the districts equally.
Addressing a public meeting at Sheikhabad locality here on Sunday, Mr Sherpao, who is also head of his own faction of the Pakistan People’s Party, criticised the MMA government for using maximum funds in two districts—Bannu, the constituency of Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani, and Dir, the constituency of Senior Minister Sirajul Haq.
The NWFP government has been ignoring other districts, which has created a sense of deprivation among their people, he added.
He also criticise the policies of Awami National Party (ANP) and said “the so-called champion of nationalists had done nothing for the Pakhtuns and the province, despite remaining in government on several occasions”.
Mr Sherpao said that due to solid and constant economic policies of the government, the foreign exchange reserves of the country had increased from $400 million to $14 billion since Gen Pervez Musharraf took over.
The gross domestic product (GDP) had registered an upward increase of 8.5 per cent duet to the policies of the government, he added.
Mr Sherpao maintained that the government had increased the minimum salary from Rs2500 to Rs3000 besides allowing a big increase in allowances in the recent budget. Corporations would also increase salaries of their employees, he said and assured that the federal government was making all out efforts to arrest price-hike and unemployment.
The minister attributed the inflationary trend to tremendous increase in the prices of oil in the international market.
Production in agriculture and industry is on the rise and inflation trend will decline soon, he claimed and added that industrial units were now running in full capacity and fresh domestic and foreign investment in medium and large scale industries had also registered a considerable growth.
On this occasion, Jan Alam Paracha, Faqir Mohammad, Hayat Khan, Saleem Safi, Haji Rokhan, Muhabbat Khan, Khalid Rasool, Abbas Khan and scores of their supporters announced to resigne from the ANP and join PPP.
APP Adds: Mr Sherpao said the government had taken various measures to ensure availability of edible commodities at cheaper rates at the utility stores.
He said that the architect of today’s Malaysia, Dr Mohtar Muhammad, had also described the unprecedented economic growth rate achieved by Pakistan in the past few years as a good omen for the country’s economy.
The federal minister said the government was bringing judicial reforms to provide quick and inexpensive justice to common man.
These judicial reforms would help reduce the rate of pending cases and clear the backlog in the courts of law.
He said the government had allocated Rs306billion for mega-projects in the country. Effects of these projects would go a long way in solving the problem of unemployment and substantially raising living standard of the masses, he added.
