PESHAWAR, Dec 29: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz's instructions to the provinces to draw up plans for generation of employment opportunities are yet to be executed by the NWFP government.

The province, according to sources, was required to provide the plan to the federal government by December 1, 2004, indicating the number and the categories of jobs to be generated.

The delay is being caused due to a row between the industries department and the planning and development department. Officials said that the departments were asking each other to fulfil the task.

The industries department claimed that the planning and development department supervised developmental activities in the province therefore it was better placed to formulate the plan, said an official.

Officials said that the industries department adopted the stand on the basis of the contents of the letter of the federal ministry of labour and manpower forwarded to it by the NWFP chief minister.

The federal ministry, said the sources, had asked the province to formulate the plan of action on the basis of its current and future development strategy. "The matter is now with the planning and development department, which has not yet responded to the industries department's viewpoint," said an official.

Officials of the planning and development department, however, said that the task fell under the purview of the industries department so it should be drawing up the plan.