Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Sports, Tourism and Archaeology, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Aqil Shah has said that the provincial government is reconstructing Malam Jaba Resort and initiating chair-lift with the assistance of Switzerland and Australia at a cost of rupees one billion to revive tourism in the area.
Speaking in the Meet the Press Programme under the auspices of Khyber Union of Journalists (KhUJ), here at Peshawar Press Club on Monday, he said that the province has the potential for attraction of tourists. He said that the provincial government has organised three mega water sports galas in Khanpur Lake that were attended by millions of people. He said that after hydropower, natural gas and mineral resources archaeological sites are the huge wealth of the province, which will be utilised for the promotion of tourism.
He said that 63 percent population of the province is comprised of youth, saying that a special plan has been evolved for imparting technical education to the drop out students from schools and colleges. He said that the provincial government has already established an institution under public-private partnership that will provide technical and vocational skill to more than 3000 boys and girls.
He said that the department of youth affairs has also planned the construction of five youth hostels in the province. He said that construction work on first building in this regard will start in Naraan in July next year. He said that the provincial government has launched various projects for the promotion of sports activities and development of tourism sector. For the promotion of sports facilities, he said an amount of Rs 2.20 billion have been allocated in the budget.
Aqil asked the opposition parties to wait for the next general polls scheduled in 2013 to let the democratic government to complete its constitutional period. He said that President, Asif Ali Zardari is an elected president and have obtained record votes from the electoral college of the presidential poll. The only way to oust him, he said is the impeachment. He said that the campaign against the president by the champions of democracy and those who had boycotted the general elections of February 2008 has no justification. He said that democracy is the best system of government and in any form it is better from dictatorship.
The minister called for completion of the cycle of the democratic process to strengthen democracy. He said that unfortunately no democratically elected government has completed its term. He said that the stand of ANP is the continuation of the democratic system. He asked the opposition to wait till next general elections and leave the decision on the people to reject the present rulers or re-elect them.
Aqil Shah said that ANP is the largest political party of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which also has representation in the provincial assemblies of Sindh and Balochistan and was confident that in next elections will also get representation in Punjab Assembly and will emerge as largest political force of the country.
Regarding the achievement of ANP government in KP, he said that they have given identification to the province, saying that they are not against the formation of separate Hazara province, but have differences over the procedure adopted for it. He said that ANP has succeeded in getting identification of the province after a long struggle of over 100 years. He claimed that the party has fulfilled all electoral pledges as under the National Finance Commission Award, it has increased the resources of the province and provincial autonomy under 18th Constitutional Amendment. He said that for first time in the history of country any political party has fulfilled all electoral pledges.
For the next general elections, he said the party will include further improvement in health facilities in public sector hospitals and doubling of seats in schools and generation of cheap electricity from natural gas in its manifesto. He said that the huge natural resource of gas will be utilised for generation of electricity and 30 mega-watt electricity will be generated for each village. The amount paid to the province in head of net profit on hydropower generation will be spent on the hydropower projects.