ISLAMABAD, Jan 23: Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs, Northern Areas, States & Frontier Regions and Water & Power has said that the royalty of Mangla Dam shall be decided according to the President of Pakistan’s directives.

He was presiding over the meeting of the AJK Council here today.

The meeting was attended by members of the AJK Council including Muhammad Mutalib Inkilabi, Sardar M. Sawar Khan, Mumtaz Hussain Naqvi, Dr M. Najib Naqi Khan and Ghulam Raza Shah Naqvi.

The minister assured the members that they shall continue to identify development schemes as previously. He said that Wapda is a utility and was dedicated to public service and must refrain from any statement regarding AJK’s royalty or otherwise.

The members invited the minister to visit refugees’ camps who had come to the AJK to escape the unprovoked Indian shelling on the LoC.

Earlier, the AJK Council secretary S. M. Junaid briefed the minister on the working and mandate of the AJK Council secretariat.

The minister was informed that the AJK council secretariat had decided to computerize pay roll & pension records of the AJK government and council employees.

Similarly, the secretariat initiated the construction of residential colonies in the AJK, under which 107 housing units are being constructed at the cost of Rs114 million.

The secretariat has a total budget outlay of Rs2,406 million for this financial year including the 71 per cent i.e. Rs1,710 million grant to the AJK government, and 17 per cent (Rs418 million) shall be spent on development schemes in various sectors of the AJK territory.

Under the AJK Council Members Programme, the government of Pakistan spent Rs445.807 million on 4,777 projects in the AJK from 1991-1992 from the allocations of Public Sector Development Programme. And 4,454 schemes are completed; work on the 175 schemes is in progress.