PESHAWAR, March 7: The NWFP chief secretary-designate, Sahibzada Riaz Noor, has said maintaining law and order in the province and the tribal areas will be his priority.

“The prevailing situation in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan has adversely affected law and order in settled districts of the province, and this needs attention to check the increasing lawlessness,” he told Dawn on Wednesday.

Mr Noor, who would assume the office on Thursday and replace Ejaz Ahmad Qureshi, said other areas of his focus would be clean and good governance and education and health sectors.

The outgoing chief secretary, Mr Qureshi, who had joined the office on June 16, 2003, said his priorities were making departments and bureaucracy efficient to ensure better service delivery and bringing about reforms in the education sector.

Under the human resource development strategy initiated by the outgoing chief secretary, more than 3,500 officers of various grades were promoted to next grades.