PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has said that federal government is cheating federating units of the country on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.

Talking to participants of National Management Course at Chief Minister Secretariat here on Tuesday, he said that CPEC project was conceptually initiated by Mushrraf-led government but when PML-N came into power, it initiated different projects in Punjab keeping the rest of federating units in darkness.

According to a statement, Mr Khattak said that federal government diverted almost the entire amount of $46 billion to projects in Punjab.

KP chief minister says western route of corridor should be completed first

He said that work on western route should be initiated and completed first. The western route should be notified as integral part of CPEC, he added.

The chief minister said that he was not against the central route but when it came to the western route, he would never give up. “It is a project that will spell out the future landscape of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the entire belt,” he added.

Mr Khattak doubted the intentions of the federal government, saying the western route would not benefit the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa if it was not used by the Chinese for transportation of goods and services and it did not have all the prerequisites required for a route because the investors would hardly invest there.

“It is strange to see that infrastructure is completed on central route of CPEC but there is no practical work on the western route. It is a joke. It is against the commitment of the prime minister,” said the chief minister. He added that he would fight it out at all forums not only for the western route and rights of the province, but more vociferously they would continue asking the federal government about the cheating.

Mr Khattak said that public access was ensured to the service delivery through Right to Services Act. “There are almost 25 services which would have to be provided to the people within a timeframe. Failure in this regard would be considered a crime,” he said.

The chief minister said that his government formed different boards in all public sector entities to end government’s interference and make those institutions autonomous. He said that government also undertook a monitoring mechanism to ensure presence of teachers and doctors etc at their duty place.

“We also succeeded in enhancing the quality of services and the overall delivery of these services in the education and health sectors and brought them at par with the private sector,” said Mr Khatta.

He said that in future, public sector hospitals would have their own employees including doctors and nursing and auxiliary staff throughout the province.

He also referred to the health insurance scheme launched by his government for the provision of free healthcare to poor people.

Meanwhile, the participants of the 20th Senior Management Course (SMC) on Tuesday visited Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission.

Sixteen participants of the course were on a study tour and officials of KPEC briefed them about structure and working of the accountability body.

A statement issued here said that retired Col Sardar Ali, the director investigation of KPEC, briefed the participants about the commission achievements.

He said that commission made remarkable stride in a short span of time despite limited resources.

Lajbar Khan, KPEC special prosecutor, briefed the participants about Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission Act, 2014. He said that the law would go a long way in dealing with the cases of corruption. Mohammad Sajjad, KPEC acting director general, was also present on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2016