TAXILA: The Tiger Force was launched in Attock on Saturday at an event organised by the district administration.

Addressing the event’s participants, chief guest Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis Syed Zulfiqar Bukhari said that the Tiger Force would write a new history of serving the country voluntarily.

He said the youth was the country’s greatest asset and through this platform would provide masses of enthusiastic volunteers to aid local administrations, civil servants and health officials.

He said the volunteers will be assigned responsibilities for Eid in the next few days.

Adviser to the Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam, who presided over the event, said that Prime Minister Imran Khan was working against the sugar, flour and petrol mafias that had influenced the state with their interests and been strengthened by successive governments.

He added that the Tiger Force would be used in the 10 Billion Tree Tsunami programme and the Clean and Green Pakistan initiative, as Mr Khan wants the volunteers to assist the government’s efforts to tackle climate change.

The event was also disrupted by party infighting, after some guests began heckling Mr Bukhari before he began speaking. Two rival groups nearly began a brawl, but the local leadership intervened and calmed them down.

At an earlier public meeting in his hometown of Jand, Mr Bukhari said that remote areas would be developed and the deprivation of underprivileged segments of society would end in the ‘new Pakistan’.

He said the PTI government is working to uplift underdeveloped parts of the province to bring them at par with developed areas and ensure uniform and sustainable development across the province.

He said villages in Jand tehsil within a five kilometre radius of Dakhni Oil Field would be provided gas facilities soon and the installation of gas meters will begin in Chhapri village next week.

The widening and carpeting of Jand-Khunda Road has begun and will be completed in five phases in a short span of time, at a cost of Rs1.02 billion, he added.

A technical college will also be established in Jand, which has been taken up with the Punjab government and for which formalities are being completed.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2020