PESHAWAR, Dec 4: Governor Ali Mohammad Jan Aurakzai said on Monday that the Fata sustainable development project would address the socio-economic backwardness of the people of the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas.

Talking to the Islamabad-based country director of the UK Department for International Development (DFID), who called on him at the Governor’s House, Mr Aurakzai said that for implementation of the plan the Fata Secretariat had been restructured and its managerial skills improved.

The governor said: “The Fata sustainable development project is envisaged to be implemented by 2015 and it will definitely require generous assistance from donors.” A donors’ conference would be held in January, to involve them in the development process and make things moving in the desired directions, he added.

Mr Aurakzai said that the government had raised the budgetary outlays for Fata from almost Rs1 billion in 2000 to Rs6.2 billion during the current financial year.

The governor said the government was aware of the future prospects of international trade through land routes in Fata and therefore not only the Peshawar-Torkham Highway was being developed as an express way but the conversion of Kohat-Parachinar road and Bannu-Ghulam Khan road into A grade international routes was also on cards.

The country director told the governor that the DFID had committed £1 million for the capacity building of the Civil Secretariat (Fata) and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, during his recent visit to Pakistan, had doubled grants for different projects.—APP