PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Mahmood Khan has said his government is focusing on reconstruction and rehabilitation of militancy-hit areas across the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

“We will put in place a complete structure of public sector institutions, governance and delivery,” the chief minister said while presiding over a high-level meeting at the CM Secretariat here on Sunday.

According to a statement, the chief minister ordered provision of resources to ensure timely completion of the projects to benefit the people. “We have already evolved a just and uniform development strategy to give relief to the poor segments of society and mitigate their sufferings,” Mr Mahmood said.

The meeting was also attended by provincial ministers Ishtiaq Urmar, Taimur Saleem Jhagra, Shaukat Yousafzai, Akbar Ayub Khan and Dr Amjad Ali, adviser to CM.

The meeting reviewed the overall resource allocation with focus on completing the fast-track projects both ongoing and new.

It was informed about the logical way out for the re-appropriation focusing more on the completion of fast-track projects. Normally, the process of re-appropriation is carried out in the third quarter of the fiscal year in order to give maximum time to the departments to complete their projects within the fiscal year averting the throw-forward burden.

The meeting was informed that this time the holy month of Ramazan would fall in May-June, therefore, it necessitated more to carry out the re-appropriation process within the third quarter.

The participants were also briefed about the overall role of P&D in evaluating and keeping a watchful eye on the status of schemes.

The chief minister said his government was focusing on the infrastructure development through a three dimensional approach that included short, mid and long-term strategy. This is necessary because certain areas were thoroughly affected by militancy and subsequent operations and some areas were partially hit, he added.

Mr Mahmood said his government would ensure that the interest of the helpless people was secured.

Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2019