ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Standing Committee on States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) on Tuesday recommended that only locals from merged areas of erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas would be appointed in the projects under Social Welfare Department.

The committee met in the chairmanship of MNA Sajid Khan here at Parliament House.

The Additional Secretary, Social welfare Department Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa briefed the Committee on welfare schemes in merged areas in detail.

The committee further directed the Additional Secretary, Social Welfare Department to maintain transparency in distributing Zakat funds to the genuine poor people of the area.

The committee also discussed the issue of 3G and 4G network issue in tribal districts and decided that Secretary, Ministry of Information Technology would be invited in the next meeting to discuss the said issue.

The committee also discussed the Bus Terminal issue at Bara, District Khyber and standing loaded containers on roads due to Coronavirus in detail.

Whereupon the Additional Secretary, Home and Tribal Affairs Department, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa briefing the committee informed that the said bus terminal closed due to clash between two groups of the area.

He further informed that the issue of backlog of containers had been resolved on making easy the process of clearance of containers by the Custom and FIA Departments at Torkham border.

Thereupon, the committee recommended either restore the bus terminal at Bara or establish the terminal on other appropriate site to resolve the issue of containers being standing on roads for weeks.

The meeting was attended by MNAs: Saleh Muhammad, Shahid Ahmad, Gul Dad Khan, Gul Zafar Khan, Muhammad Iqbal Khan, Abdul Shakoor Shad, Ms. Aliya Hamza Malik, Nawabzada Shah Zain Bugti, Sajid Hussain Turi, Muhammad Jamal Ud Din and Ali Wazir and Officers/Officials of the Ministry and its attached departments.