PESHAWAR, March 26: The NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani said that the government was considering construction of a road leading to Afghanistan, passing through the Ghulam Khan Checkpoint.

The road, starting from Bannu, would help accelerate trade and business between Punjab, Sarhad and Afghanistan, he added.

The chief minister expressed these views while talking to two separate delegations of Nazimeen of Bannu and Chitral, at Frontier House, Peshawar. Maulana Abdul Akbar, MNA and Maulana Abdur Rehman, Maulana Jehangir, MPAs, were also present on the occasion.

He said that completion of this road would provide another short route to Kabul like Torkham Road, would greatly benefit businessmen of southern districts and would expand trade activities between Punjab and Afghanistan.

He said that overseas Pakistanis have shown keen interest in investing in the construction and renovation of Bannu Airport and in streamlining it with commercial point of view.

He said that federal government had been approached in this context and positive results were expected soon.

He said that construction of Lowari Tunnel was also being actively pursued to remove backwardness of Chitral and it would be initiated in June. Moreover, provincial government was also paying attention to the development of Kohistan district.

He said that the government would devise a uniform policy to remove the sense of deprivation of the people of less developed areas of the province.

He said that launching welfare schemes was not a favour to any district but it was the responsibility of the government, however, he underlined the need for keeping vigilance over such schemes as, he said, the present government did not want to let these funds go into the pockets of individuals.

Mr Durrani said that a modern school would be established at Bannu.

Work on projects like Passport Office, Banuchi Platoon, Sui gas and on establishing a well-equipped hospital has also been started.

He said that multi-purpose projects, including construction and widening of roads, were underway at many places in the province.

Referring to provision of sui-gas to southern districts, the Chief Minister said that this project would soon be carried out, which would cost Rs12 billion.

He said that Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali was also taking keen interest in these projects.

He said that his government wanted to honour the obligations of public representation in a democratic way. If the government could not take practical steps in this respect then its claims of delivering social services to the people, enforcement of Shariah and resolution of other main issues, would go in vain.

He said the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal’s government wanted to make the district governments more effective by removing deficiencies and making it welfare-oriented in the real sense.

He said that DCOs have been made chairmen of district development committees to ensure equal and judicious distribution of development funds as the system had already been in place in Sindh province.

The chief minister said that draft of the Shariah Enforcement Council has been announced, which would be promulgated in the province in purely democratic manner and would be implemented in letter and spirit.

Referring to the rights of women, he said that the rights given to the women by Islam had no precedence in other religions.

The establishment of women university and a woman medical college was being planned and the government had declared honour killings and divorcing at one go as crimes punishable by law.

The delegates appreciated the government’s steps for enforcing Islamic laws in the province, efforts for providing justice and for judicious allocation of resources.—APP