Altaf Hamid Rao,
MIRPUR ( Parliament Times): Azad Jammu and Kashmir Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas Khan on Sunday said that since the government has presented a revolutionary budget it was now the responsibility of the state machinery to leave no stone unturned in serving the people.
“In order to make AJK a model state, we shall move forward as per the PTI chairman Imran Khan’s vision”, the PM said adding that tourism would be promoted as an industry to make people financially self-sufficient. He said that the PTI ~led AJK government would never disappoint the people of the AJK who had given us the mandate.
All the promises the PTI had made during its pre-election campaigning will be fulfilled”, the PM said while talking to journalists. The Azad Jammu Kashmir government, he said, was moving forward according to its priorities. “The fruits of the government’s initiatives have started reaching the people”, he said adding that people of the liberated territory would soon feel the change on the ground.
He said that instead of solving the problems of the common people the previous governments have promoted nepotism and favoritism.
In order to promote tourism, the PM said that digital mapping was being introduced for the first time for the promotion of tourism in Azad Kashmir. In order to make the National Action Plan successful, the PM said that the Counter Terrorism Department was established in the Police Department of Azad Kashmir, for which a significant amount of money was provided to meet other needs of this department. He said that funds have also been increased for delivery of quality health services to the people at their doorsteps.
He said that Hospitals at Samahni in district Bhimber and Mang in district Sudhnoti were upgraded and these centers were given the status of Tehsil Headquarters.
He said that Forest Department was successfully completing the “Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Program”, which was initiated by the PTI chairman Imran Khan a couple of years back. Media, he said, was the fourth pillar of the state, which cannot be neglected. He said that the PTI government has allocated an amount of 7 crore rupees for the Press Foundation, in which 2 crore rupees were reserved for the heirs of deceased journalists and the welfare of journalists.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister extended his heartfelt felicitations to the newly elected office bearers of Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) including the PFUJ president Afzal Butt, Secretary General Arshad Ansari, Asad Pathan and others.
He expressed the hope that the PFUJ would play its role in highlighting the prevailing political and human rights situation in the Indian occupied Kashmir besides raising voice against ban on media in the occupied Kashmir. Praising the PFUJ leadership for its constructive role, he said that the journalist body has always fostered high journalistic values.