MANSEHRA, Jan 23: NWFP Minister for Haj Nimroz Khan has said the provincial government has approved five platoons of the Frontier Constabulary for Kala Dhaka to maintain peace in the region.

“The government wants to solve all the issues peacefully but our gesture of peace should not be considered our weakness as we know how to run the affairs of the government,” he told a jirga of elders of Kala Dhaka, a Provincially Administered Tribal Area, in Oghi on Friday.

Kala Dhaka administrator Syed Ismail Ali Shah and political tehsildar Jamshed Khan were also present. They briefed the jirga members about the ongoing development projects in the area.

The minister said the provincial government had prepared a strategy to involve elders and ulema in the restive areas of the province to ensure peace there.

“The government is sincere in restoring peace in Swat and other troubled areas as the prosperity and development of the province is linked with peace, which will be ensured at any cost.”

The minister said the government was striving hard to put the province on the path of prosperity and development, especially its remote and backward areas, which was in line with its policy to end discrimination among the people of the province.

Mr Nimroz, who hails from Kala Dhaka, said development projects worth billions of rupees had been launched in the region, which he said had remained backward due to negligence of successive governments.

He said work on the Darband-Thakot road, Sakha Kot-Shakai road, Tulli Kanda road and the Kunhar Dom road was in progress and completion of the projects would benefit the people of the area. He said that for provision of potable water to every village in the area, work on different water schemes had also been started.

The minister said Kala Dhaka was also affected by the 2005 earthquake as its educational and health infrastructure had been damaged. The Earthquake Reconstruction ad Rehabilitation Authority, he said, would rebuild 34 schools.

Some of the elders apprised the minister and the political administration about the problems facing the area and said people were still deprived of basic amenities, demanding the government should speed up work on development projects.

Mr Nimroz also visited the Hazara University and met its vice-chancellor Dr Ihsan Ali, enquiring from him about ongoing development projects of the institute.

Mr Ali said work on six blocks would be completed next month, which would benefit over 4,000 students of the university.