PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Mahmood Khan was informed on Friday that the youth from across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa responded overwhelmingly to the Prime Minister’s Kamyab Jawan Programme and thus far over 90,000 applications had been received from all the districts.

A statement issued here said that Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Youth Affairs Usman Dar briefed the chief minister about the initiative. Mr Dar stated that over 90,000 applications had been received from the province in five weeks.

It quoted Mr Khan as saying that Kamyab Jawan Programme was expected to provide employment opportunities to the youth by enabling them to initiate businesses, which would not only generate revenue, but also promote entrepreneurship generating further job opportunities.

Mr Dar said that one million applications had been received from all over the country during the past five weeks. He said that the use of digital portal had accelerated the process of submitting the application whereas most of the applications in KP had been received from Peshawar followed by Swat, Mardan, Chitral, Mansehra, Shangla and Abbottabad.

Usman Dar briefs CM about initiative

The chief minister said that the timeline for submission of applications in the merged districts should be extended keeping in view certain factors, including unavailability of internet and banking facilities.

He said that alternate user-friendly mechanism should also be developed for the tribal districts keeping in view dynamics of the region.

He said that directives had already been issued to the quarters concerned to speed up the process of providing loans. He said that the present government was developing a culture of self-reliance among the youth so that they became job provides instead of job seekers. He said that welfare of the youth was the top priority of the government.

He said that through this programme they had also come to know about the nature of business demand in the country that would be helpful to the overall effort of the government to promote employment.

The meeting was also attended by senior minister Mohammad Atif Khan, finance minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra, advisor to the CM on merged districts Ajmal Wazir and other officials.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2019