Rs 24bn security package for NWFP approved: Hoti
PESHAWAR: The federal government has approved a Rs 24 billion internal security package for the NWFP, which the province will get in four instalments, NWFP Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti said on Tuesday.
Addressing the provincial assembly at the end of the budget session, Hoti said the province would get Rs 6 billion every three months to improve internal security. He said the military operation in Malakand would end within a few days, Online reported. “We will not give the Taliban any space to regroup and reorganise in Malakand,” he vowed.
Repatriation: Hoti said the process of repatriating the internally displaced persons (IDPs) of Malakand to their native towns and villages would start within a few days. He said that devising a post-operation strategy was his government’s priority, since it involved the relief and rehabilitation of the IDPs, which was a big challenge.
Police: According to APP news agency, Hoti said the government had chalked out a strategy to strengthen the civil administration and increased the number of police stations for the security and safety of returning IDPs
He said the number of police personnel in Malakand would be doubled, with the package of Rs 24 billion announced by the federal government, and 2,500 special police officers and ex-servicemen would be recruited in the police force in Swat.
He said a community police force consisting of 7,000 men would also be set up, and each community police officers would get Rs 10,000 a month. He said the salaries of police personnel in the province had been doubled, while the compensation package for each police martyr had been increased from Rs 1 million to Rs 1.5 million. One son of each martyred policeman would be employed or given free education from the primary to the post-graduate level, and a plot would be given to the bereaved family, he said.
The NWFP CM said the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation was the demand of the people of Malakand, and the government would fulfil that demand. “The nation knows that the Taliban do not want Nizam-e-Adl, but want to cause destruction,” he said.
The chief minister said the provincial government lacked resources and had to shift money from development funds to the internal security funds.
He said the government had increased funds for the Poverty Alleviation Programme from Rs 1 billion to Rs 4.66 billion.
He said his government had succeeded in having several mega projects approved by the government under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP). “Eight small dams, a Swat development package, 1,000 primary schools (700 for girls and 300 for boys), Benazir Shaheed Hospital in Peshawar, a children’s hospital in Peshawar, burn and trauma centres in Peshawar hospitals, a Nowshera bypass and 11 underpasses have been approved under the PSDP,” he said.
He said the federal government had also approved cadet colleges in Lakki Marwat, Swat, Charsadda and Chitral, and the Abdul Wali Khan University in Mardan. Hoti said the new taxes would not affect the poor. A rent-a-car dealer would pay only Rs 400 per month, while a caterer would pay Rs 840, he said. zakir hasnain/agencies
Source: Daily Times
Date:6/24/2009
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