April 10, 2008	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 3, 1429

PESHAWAR, April 9: NWFP Chief Minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti will announce a 100-day package for the people after seeking vote of confidence here on Thursday.

Insiders say that Mr Hoti’s relief package will include concessions in education, health, agriculture and social sectors. It includes a reform-based programme for seminaries, which had turned into ‘nurseries of militancy’ after an unending war in Afghanistan.

The coalition wants to equip all the seminaries with computers so that the students could be imparted with new disciplines based on science and technology.

People expect more facilities in education and health sector. The public sector schools have lost their attraction being the source of knowledge due to shortage of required funds, teaching staff and class rooms.

The schools and colleges in the private sector had limited opportunities for the students belonging to the middle and lower-middle classes.

The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal’s government had arranged the free-of-cost education, up to matriculation, in the province but it could not make an impact on society. The MMA’s education commission failed to bring any change in the outdated system.

The coalition government is facing food scarcity owing to the smuggling of flour across the border and insufficient supply of wheat from Punjab.

The province had got notoriety when people had been provided with sub-standard wheat in the past. In his maiden speech after his unopposed election on April 1, Mr Hoti had stressed on using all available options including the traditional jirga-system for bringing a lasting peace to the violence-hit province and its surrounding tribal areas.

He had made it clear upon all quarters involved in the ‘business of killing’ that there would be no peace talks at the cost of innocent lives.

He, however, asked the estranged people to come forward and explain their grievances to his elected government, which was committed to fallow the philosophy of non-violence for an early restoration of normalcy in the troubled districts.