PESHAWAR: Fata additional chief secretary Sikandar Qayyum inaugurated the European Union-funded ‘Aid to Uprooted People in Pakistan’ project here on Monday.

A ceremony in this respect was held at the Governor’s House, where the relevant government officials and representatives of civil society and project implementing organisations were also in attendance.

The project will executed in Khyber, Kurram, Orakzai and North and South Waziristan agencies of Fata during the next five years to facilitate the reintegration of the region’s internally displaced persons by creating a favourable environment for their return.

Mr Qayyum thanked the European Union and Germany for supporting the development of Fata through generous financial and technical assistance and said the government was committed to reforms in the war-torn region.

Sarhad Rural Support Programme chief executive officer Shahzada Masoodul Mulk said the project had an outlay of 34 million Euros and that 27 million Euros of that money would be spent on the community development component to be implemented by the SRSP, while six million Euros were allocated for the governance programme to be implemented by the German agency, GIZ.

He said the former part of the programme would concentrate on building community institutions and helping build essential community infrastructure and livelihood support through the grass root bottom up development in five agencies of Fata, while the latter would concentrate on governance support for the programmes being implemented in those agencies through German assistance i.e. KFW and GIZ.

Ambassador of the European Union Jean-François Cautain and head of the economic cooperation and development section at the German embassy Dr Jürgen Zoll, who were also present on the occasion, said the support for Fata reforms would continue.

Shoaib Sultan of the Rural Support Programs said the community development could fill the gap in the governance system left by the widespread charges in Fata in the last decade.

Heads of German development bank, Kfw, and GIZ also spoke on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2017