MARDAN: Provincial Minister for Food and Science and Technology Mohammad Atif Khan has said that most of the ongoing mega development projects in Mardan district will be completed within next two to three months.

Talking to a delegation of journalists at his residence here on Thursday, he said that work on different blocks of district headquarters hospital Mardan and Benazir Children Hospital would be completed within two to three months.

He said that government was taking all necessary steps to upgrade Bacha Khan Medical College Mardan to medical university. He said that government allocated more than Rs3 billion to convert the Katlang single route into dual carriageway to solve the traffic problems.

The minister said that government planned to build science museum on 100 kanals of land and special technology zone on 1,200 kanals of land as well as Katlang industrial estate on 4,200 kanals of land. Besides, he said that they had also acquired 100 kanals of land for culture centre.

To a query, he said that government was trying to control the increasing prices of food items. However, he said that price hike was the problem of the entire world. He said that prices of items had also been increased in the developed countries.

The minister said that price of per barrel petrol reached from $40 to $114 in the international market which brought a wave of price hike across the world.

About the no-confidence motion of opposition parties against the prime minister, he said that it was a futile exercise. He said that all the allies of government had assured Prime Minister Imran Khan time and again that they would stand by him.

“We are going to bring a relief package for the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the coming budget,” he said.

Mardan Press Club president Musarrat Khan Aassi briefed the minister about the problems being faced by the local journalists.

The minister assured him that he would resolve the problems of journalists on priority bases.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2022