PESHAWAR
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Information, Barrister Feroze Jamal Shah Kakakhel has said that the interim budget of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will be for 4 months.
Talking to the media during his visit to Peshawar Press Club (PPC) on Wednesday, he said that the provincial government is expected to receive a fund of 876 billion rupees from the federal government.
Secretary Information Mukhtiar Ahmed, Director General (DG) Information and Public Relations Department Basir Ali Rehman, President Peshawar Press club Arshad Aziz Malik and General Secretary PPC were also present on the occasion.
He said that te size of the development budget is estimated to be of Rs. 130 billion, saying all budget related issues will be completed in one to two days.
He said that the caretaker government is trying its level best not to borrow more loans. The provincial government will consider keeping a fund for journalists on the pattern of other provinces.
H said that the Information Department is now fully operational and the FIA is conducting an inquiry into the illegal encashment of the government advertisements’ cheques.
The provincial minister said that journalists and information department are two wheels of the same cart. Journalists will be provided with a good working environment and the provincial government is trying to resolve all the problems and sufferings faced by the journalist community. He said that a total of Rs. 38 million rupees have been released to the Peshawar Press Club, which will be spent on the welfare of journalists. Similarly, to solve the electricity problem faced by the Peshawar Press Club, he announced the solarization of the building on priority basis.
In response to a question, the caretaker provincial minister said that the mandate of the caretaker government is to conduct free, fair and transparent elections. However, he said that it is the job of the Governor and the President of Pakistan to give the date of the elections and until the general elections are held, the caretaker setup will continue to carry out its constitutional responsibilities.
The minister for information said that there were misunderstandings regarding the appointment of Director General (DG) Information, but now the Information Department is fully functional. He said that after meeting with the officers of the department, he transferred the officers to their desirable position on merit and performance basis.
He furthered that, nineteen officers were sent to the station and section of their choice so that these officers can work with their full mental capacity. He expressed his determination that nothing will be done which will damage the image of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
He further said that the FIA is investigating the illegal encashment of government advertisements’ cheques by the Information Department. The department has to pay huge amount of money to the media houses for advertisement, but there is no record of payment amounting to Rs.1.30 billion which were released earlier through cheques.
He said that in the previous government, advertisements worth millions of rupees were issued to dummy newspapers and dummy channels.
The caretaker Minister said that a committee of press club and information department will be formed in this regard, so as to issue advertisement to those newspapers which are eligible in all respect. He said that the dummy newspapers and dummy channels rob the rights of other genuine journalistic institutions.
Answering a question, the caretaker Information minister said that the caretaker chief minister Muhammad Azam Khan has written several letters to the federal government for NHP profit revenue and due to his efforts two billion rupees have been received by the province. The caretaker government is working to collect all arrears of NHP profits from the Federation.
He said that the 09th May incident was pre-planned and the young generation was misled for this purpose. He said the Radio Pakistan Peshawar building was completely distorted on 9th May. He said that Captain Karnal Sher Khan Shaheed is the first Nishan Haider holder of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and I personally went to visit his mausoleum and apologized to his family for the incident of 09 May.
Similarly, I went to Jinnah House in Lahore and was crying tears of blood after seeing the scenes there,” he added.
