KHAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa minister for agriculture, livestock, fisheries and cooperatives Muhibullah Khan has said the government is giving special attention to the development of merged tribal districts to improve the living standard of inhabitants.

He was speaking to elders, PTI workers and officials of agriculture, livestock and fisheries departments during a visit to the district on Friday.

The minister said the provincial government in line with special directives of Prime Minister Imran Khan had initiated a comprehensive plan for socioeconomic development of merged tribal districts. He said the tribal districts had been ignored in development by the previous rulers.

Muhibullah Khan said execution of mega development schemes in the region would end the sense deprivation among the people. He said merged districts had great potential for development of agriculture, livestock and fisheries sectors, adding the government had designed a comprehensive programme for improving the sectors.

The minister said senior leadership of PTI, including Jehangir Tareen, KP chief minister and provincial governor would soon visit Bajaur to inaugurate several mega projects in agriculture and livestock sectors.

Secretary agriculture Mohammad Israr and director general Rahmatuddin Khan also accompanied the minister.

PROTEST: Students of basic education community schools (BECS) in Bajaur tribal district continued protest against arrest of their teachers in Islamabad for the second consecutive day on Friday.

The protesters were holding placards inscribed with slogans against Islamabad police for arresting the teachers during a peaceful protest two days ago, and demanded their immediate release.

The protesters termed arrest of teachers inhuman and violation of their basic right of peaceful protest.

The students said they had been visiting their schools, but there were no teachers. The protesting students said as they belonged to very poor families they were admitted to the BECS with the only aim to get education.

However, they pointed out that they had not attended any class for last several days owing to absence of teachers due to the latter’s continuing protest.

They asked the Islamabad police to set free the detained teachers instantly so they could resume their duties without delay.

They also requested Prime Minister Imran Khan to accept the genuine demands of the teachers.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2019