PESHAWAR, Jan 25: Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti said on Wednesday that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had initiated special initiatives to create employ- ment opportunities for the jobless youth and praised the Bank of Khyber for transparent implementation of Bacha Khan Khpal Rozgar Scheme and Hunarmand Rozgar Scheme in this regard.

He was presiding over a meeting of the BoK officials at the CM Secretariat here. Provincial Finance Minister Mohammad Hamayun, additional chief secretary Attaullah Khan, secretary finance Sahibzada Saeed, and BoK managing director Bilal Mustafa and executive director Javed Hashmat attended the meeting.

The participants claimed that the government's special initiatives for empowering unemployed youth had achieved a wide recognition and 99.9 per cent recovery of interest-free loans issued under Bacha Khan Khpal Rozgar Scheme supported this fact.

The chief minister said that government departments had no capacity to provide jobs above certain limit and as such the unemployed youth in the province were benefiting from the Bacha Khan Khpal Rozgar Scheme.

He said that the scheme started with Rs1 billion initially had now Rs2 billion funds. Matters concerning performance of the BoK were also reviewed during the meeting.

Meanwhile, a delegation of MNAs from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas called on the chief minister here at the CM House on Wednesday and discussed with him matters of mutual interest.

The delegation included Shaukatullah, Munir Khan Orakzai, Jawad Hussain, Syed Sajid Hussain, Mohammad Kamran Khan, Maulana Noorul Haq, Abdul Malik Wazir, Zafar Baig Bittani and Syed Akhunzada. ANP senators Afrasiab Khattak and Haji Adeel, senior minister Bashir Bilour, information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain, Arbab Mohammad Tahir and Tajuddin Khan were also present on the occasion.