PESHAWAR, Aug 27: The director general of Inter-Services Public Relations, Maj Gen Rashid Qureshi, has paid rich tributes to tribal people for bringing social awareness in tribesmen and paving the way for socio-economic development in their remote areas.

Talking to a group of newsmen in Jarobi some five kms short of Pakistan-Afghan border on Tuesday, he praised the tribal people’s urge for promotion of education in the tribal belt running along the border. The government was trying to bring these remote areas at par with the other developed area of the province, he added.

He said: “Tribal people badly need roads, health centres, water supply schemes, schools and electricity in their remote areas for changing the lot of their future generations”.

The present government, he said, was pioneer of development in this area as the army had established first ever primary school, watersupply schemes and field hospitals in Jarobi.

The under-construction Bara-Tirah road would open up new vistas of development and civility for the tribal people, groaning under the evils of backwardness and ignorance, Mr Qureshi said.

He said the successive government, who allocated huge funds for these areas, failed to bring any development-oriented change in the life and environment of tribal people. None of the former rulers had spent a single penny on socio-economic development of this area, he added.