PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has devised an effective plan to construct 1,000 playgrounds in the province in five years, says Senior Minister for Sports, Tourism, Culture and Youth Affairs Atif Khan.

Talking to journalists at sports complex here on Wednesday, he said that government was focusing on welfare of youth as it held scores of event to promote sports, culture and tourism.

The minister said that a plan was chalked out to set up playgrounds on state land so that youth could be involved in healthy activities across the province. He said that there was no dearth of talent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that’s why the government was focusing on youth.

The minister said that it was the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan to develop 1,000 playgrounds.

He said that the processes of setting up the playgrounds would be started soon.

He congratulated the newly-elected office-bearers of KP Sports Writers Association and appreciated the role of journalists in promotion of sports. He said that provision of exposure to the youth would encourage them to show their skills at national and international levels.

The minister said that government had taken some key steps for promotion of tourism like introducing e-visa system for 150 countries and issuing visa to the residents of 50 countries on arrival. “Now it is easy for the people visiting Pakistan to get visa while sitting in their homes,” he added.

Mr Khan said that government had also eased the condition of ‘no objection certificate’ for tourists so that they could visit wherever they wanted.

Director General Sports Junaid Khan, Director Youth Asfandiyar Khan Khattak, Former world champion Qamar Zaman and Fata Olympic Association president Shahid Khan Shinwari also visited the media centre and congratulated the newly-elected office-bearers of the association.

Ijaz Ahmad was elected president of the association while Imran Yousafzai secretary general, Ihstisham Bashir senior vice president, Nadir Khawaja and Azmatullah vice president, Asim Shiraz finance secretary, Qadar Khan joint secretary and Saad bin Owais was elected associate secretary of the association.

The executive members of the association include Amajd Aziz Malik, Sheeba Haider, Shakeelur Rehman, Mohammad Naeem, Kaleem Qureshi, Asif Shehzad, Shehzad Mehmood, Musaratullah Jan, Jehanzeb Saddique and Shahabud Din. Shahid Khan Afridi acted as chairman of the election committee while Ijaz Rashid and Hashim Khan were members of the committee.

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2019