TAXILA: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Attock chapter’s focal person Syed Khawar Abbas Bukhari said the government has approved a development package worth Rs10 billion that would be utilised in the current fiscal year.

Talking to journalists at his residence in Attock on Monday, he said through the funds not only missing facilities in health, education and infrastructure development would be provided to the inhabitants of the district but their living standards would also be improved.

He said for the first time in the history of Punjab, backward and neglected areas of Attock had been included in the development package.

He said the funds will be spent on different development projects which included establishment of a 200-bed Mother and Child Hospital, upgradation of the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital and a nursing school to the college level. He said a sub-campus of Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) would also be established in Attock for which land had been acquired and work on the building would be initiated during the current fiscal year.

He said Attock to Haji Shah Road would be dualised while Boota to Bhatiot Road would be reconstructed which would benefit thousands of people in the Pindigheb tehsil.

Mr Bukhari added that the government had approved establishment of Attock University and work on the project would be started soon. As many as 8,000 public sector schools will be upgraded so that better educational facilities could be provided to people in remote areas, he said, adding a sports stadium would also be built in Dhoke Fateh whereas a hockey stadium had been completed while work on the cricket stadium was in progress.

He said no compromise can be made on the quality of work on the projects being executed in the district. A trauma centre will be set up in the DHQ hospital and Gondal where all facilities will be available to handle any type of fatalities on Rawalpindi-Peshawar G.T. Road, Islamabad-Peshawar Motorway and Hazara Motorway.

A house for orphans would be built at a cost of Rs400 million in Attock. He said Attock to Haji Shah and Jhala Khan Chowk to Bahtar road will also be carpeted.

Mr Bukhari said he would be a candidate for the tehsil nazim of Attock in the forthcoming local government elections.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2021