CM orders issuance of notification for Upper Chitral district
PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan at a cabinet meeting on Thursday directed the immediate issuance of a notification regarding the creation of the Upper Chitral district.
Presiding over the meeting, the chief minister said it was a promise of the previous PTI government which should be fulfilled as expeditiously as possible. The former chief minister Pervez Khattak had announced the creation of the new district at a public meeting in Chitral in Nov 2017 in the presence of Imran Khan.
The chief minister also said mainstreaming the erstwhile FATA merged into the province, the infrastructure development there, integrating these areas in the green growth initiatives and developing their natural resources base were some of the challenges his government was well aware of. The provincial government would give them proper share in the green growth initiatives. He asked the environment department to plan another billion tree tsunami for the next five years in order to reduce the negative impact of the environmental degradation. The federal government would provide equal share in the billion tree tsunami and he directed to have a transparent mechanism fulfilling all the codal formalities strictly following the laws in order to launch this mega project for the second time in the province with successful roadmap.
He directed to bring recommendations to the next meeting of the provincial cabinet for new openings in the industrial, commercial and economic growth initiatives, assuring that his government has all the potentials not only to lead this province towards sustained economic growth but would make it sure that it is the most feasible federating unit with diversified resource generation potential, he added. He also directed to improve the tax collection rate.
He promised that his government would speed up the transfer of resources from the federation though negotiations and soon he would give a complete development package to all areas of the province.
Promulgation of the District of Upper Chitral is appreciated. It should not give a hopeless outlook. The provincial authorities must bear in mind that Upper Chitral District is a long awaited hope to do away with its backwardness. Therefore it must be given enough resources at the very outset so that it starts with visible benefits to the public. We hope the authorities would avoid using traditional excuses of resource constraints.