SWAT: Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Mahmood Khan on Wednesday hit back at the federal government, saying the breakdown in law and order situation in KP was due to the “incompetence and double standard” of the “imported government” at centre.
“The Defense Minister is a non-serious person who is criticizing our police and CTD just to cover up their incompetence and injustice,” the KP chief minister said and added that the KP police force was fighting on front line and criticism on them was unacceptable and intolerable. “The imported rulers should provide budgetary share and rights of the province instead of criticizing our institutions.“
KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan expressed the views during different functions he attended during his daylong visit to district Swat. He participated as the chief guest in the passing-out parade of first batch of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Tourism Police wherein he also distributed shields to police personnel who achieved prominent positions in the training.
He also attended and addressed the Prize Distribution Ceremony of the Sports Festival 2022-23 which was organized by the Elementary & Secondary Education Department. As many, 37 different games were organized in which 56,000 students participated from all over the province.
On the occasion, he maintained that the imported government wants to create financial instability in the province by withholding its revenue share. “The provincial government has completed many welfare projects including the successful completion of the merger of erstwhile FATA into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Erstwhile FATA was promised with Rs100 billion budget per year to address their longstanding deprivations but only Rs5 billion have been released so far”, Mahmood Khan regretted. He said the imported government had withheld the funds of settled and merged districts, which was blatant injustice with the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said that the provincial government had to build universities, schools, infrastructure, police stations, communication networks and other facilities in the tribal districts. “Apart from this, arms are also to be purchased for the police which cannot be done unless the federal government provides due funds to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa”, he added.
He said that criticizing someone was easy but it was difficult to work practically.
“The current federal rulers had no concerns with peace or development”, he remarked and stated that they had come to government through regime change conspiracy with the only aim to serve alien interests and protect the looted wealth of the nation.
The KP CM during his visit laid foundation stone for the Khapal Kor Nursing & Health Science College, which is being established under Khapal Kor Foundation. The provincial government has provided a grant of Rs150 million for the project.
The Chief Minister also performed the groundbreaking of Paraplegic Center in Barikot. The project will be completed at an estimated cost of Rs1.38 billion, which will consist of 110 bed ward, 40 private rooms, Physical Therapy OPD, Pathology Lab, Pharmacy, Pediatric Rehabilitation unit and other allied facilities.
Addressing the groundbreaking ceremony of Nursing and Health Science College, the KP Chief Minister said that free educational facilities will be provided to orphan students in the proposed nursing college. He said that his government was working for the welfare of the vulnerable segment of society as per the vision of PTI Chairman Imran Khan. “Imran Khan has gone all out to help and facilitate the venerable segment of society, which can be judged from Shaukat Khanum Hospital, a land mark achievement providing state-of-the-art treatment facilities to the cancer patients”, he pointed out, adding the PTI had launched Ehsaas program under which multiple welfare measures had been initiated to reach out to the deprived segment of the society.
Later on, in the passing out ceremony of the first batch of Tourism Police, the chief minister congratulated 173 passed-out police personnel and hoped that they will play proactive role in facilitating tourists in the province. Mahmood Khan said that the establishment of Tourism Police Force was a unique initiative, with the purpose to provide a peaceful, safe and conducive environment to the tourists coming to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He made it clear that the Tourism Police will be different from the traditional police, adding that its basic responsibility was to protect tourists at tourist destinations.
Touching upon other tourism related initiatives, the KP Chief Minister said that the provincial government was working to develop tourism as an industry. The steps undertaken by his government to this effect will not only attract national and international tourists towards the scenic sites of the province but also create employment opportunities for local people and will also help in portraying the soft image of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the world. The KP CM said that the provincial government had increased the budget for the tourism sector manifold. “The initiatives taken by the provincial government have started yielding positive results as the KP government generated huge revenue of Rs66 billion from the tourism sector last year”, he informed.
