S. A Haidri
Muzaffarabad: The Prime Minister Azad Jammu and Kashmir (PM AJK) Raja Farooq Haider Khan has said that ‘government is a core part of the State besides other stakeholders in the country and failure of government is interpreted as failure of State’.
The AJK PM made these remarks during a meeting with representatives of Print and Electronic Media here at Central Press Club Muzaffarabad on Wednesday.
While expressing his serious concern on the current situation in Pakistan, PM AJK said, “Future of Kashmir is associated with Pakistan as Pakistan is fighting against many internal and external conspiracies; some persons deliberately or intentionally are being used for intrigues against Pakistan.”
Prime Minister maintained that constitution of Pakistan has indicated the routes for incumbency and one must follow these pathways saying that political forces should not become spectators after jeopardizing the situation.
“Transfer of power should be held peacefully and we should accept the results of selection by masses; stable democracy can be ensured only if we follow the pattern of transferring tenure twice or thrice similar to 2013 general elections” PM AJK opined.
Talking on the hydel projects in AJK, Prime Minister mentioned that AJK will get equal water usage charges like Khyber Pakhtun Khwa (KPK) i.e; 1:40 rupees and agreement on Neelum Jehlum Hydro Power Project is probable before long, “Revenue of AJK will increase nearby 6 billion rupees; Keeping in view the environmental issues generated after the completion of these Mega-Projects, a water lake with storage capacity of 1 million cusecs water will be constructed and I am grateful to chairman WAPDA for giving special attention in this regard” PM AJK added.
Prime Minister also shared the details of Prime Minister Pakistan Shahid Khaqaan Abbasi’s visit along with Chief of Army Staff on LOC at ‘Chiri Kot’ sector, saying that PM Pakistan announced to increase the compensation for martyrs up to 1 million besides announcement of 1 billion 800 million rupees for construction of safe community bunkers for the masses living along Line of Control. The AJK PM said that Govt. of Pakistan is cooperating fully and I am hopeful that amount for these community bunkers will be allocated soon.
Prime Minister however lamented on the recent massacre by Indian armed forces in occupied Kashmir, “Cricket players brought to occupied Kashmir were dressed up in Indian Army uniform which does not suits a player; chanting slogans of ‘Boom Boom Afridi’ were the reply of Kashmiri youngsters to Indian occupation.”
Regarding the development process in the State, Prime Minister said, “I’ve been monitoring the on-going development projects, 23 billion and 800 million development budget ought to be incurred for the welfare of public and I will not compromise on quality of any project; MMM express way will be constructed under CPEC and there will be 3 interchanges of this 4 lane road in Muzaffarabad linking ‘Lohar Gali, Rarra and Kohala’, this 400 billion rupees project will boost tourism within the State and Muzaffarabad will become tourists’ Hub.”
Prime Minister during the interaction reiterated that all political workers will be adjusted in Municipal elections and issues related to Police and other employees will be settled soon. PM AJK also stated that Health workers have already been moved to Normal budget recently.