PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Friday unveiled a five-year ambitious development plan but said it didn’t know where the Rs4 trillion funds required for its execution would come from.

“We have made this plan but are still not sure about how to generate this hefty money,” finance minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra told Prime Minister Imran Khan during a briefing in the jam-packed Nishtar Hall here.

The minister said the five-year plan and the prime minister’s vision required a huge sum of amount to be invested in multiple sectors across the province.

Minister says he doesn’t know where required Rs4tr will come from

However, the prime minister told the minister that the real issue was focus on better governance and not the money.

The minister said: “We are not here to celebrate the 100 days performance only rather to explain task to be achieved in the next five years.”

He said the provincial government had worked out a comprehensive plan for different departments on governance, health, education, rule of law, women’s development and the merged tribal districts.

The minister said 26 action plans were identified by the government for its first 100 days and 18 of them were ready and the rest were in the process of formulation.

He said the ruling PTI’s first priority was to focus on the development of youths and that according to the proposed plan, Rs6 billion would be invested for the purpose, including Rs1 billion for the youths of merged districts.

The minister said the government would give interest-free loans to youths for establishing own businesses, which would also generate self-employment.

He said the people of tribal districts would feel visible changes in their areas within six months as the government had developed development projects for them.

The minister said the first initiative of the government in merged districts was the launching of the Sehat Insaf Card for providing medical services to the people at its expenses.

He said the telemedicine programme in 13 facilities was being expended to the tribal districts, while machines in 16 municipalities of the areas would be functional soon. The minister added that solarisation of 100 mosques had also been included in the plan for tribal districts.

He said Peshawar would get Rs5 billion under the plan to become a modern city.

“Under the five years plan, the local governments will get Rs200 billion,” he said adding that an authority would be established to promote tourism. The minister 20 new tourist destinations had been identified in the province.

He said the government would accord more focus on economic growth and empowerment of women.

SHELTER HOME: The prime minister inaugurated a shelter home for homeless people in the capital city.

He was accompanied by Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, provincial ministers and chief secretary, said a statement issued here. The prime minister was briefed about the facilities to be provided to the homeless people and capacity of the shelter home.

The provincial government has done sufficient work in the establishment of the shelter home keeping in view the vision of Imran Khan.

According to the statement, three more shelter homes will be established in the city soon.

The chief minister claimed that the previous provincial governments made policies to serve own political interest instead of focusing on the development of poor people.

He said for the first time, the people had voted for the PTI to power twice for being disappointed by the previous rulers.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2018