Demanding justice: PTI accused of prioritising certain districts

PML-N MPA says govt neglecting underdeveloped areas.

SHANGLA: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz MPA Muhammad Rashad Khan said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf is focusing on specific districts with development projects while the remaining areas of the province suffer.

Addressing a private college’s inauguration ceremony in Bisham on Sunday, Rashad said Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and other ministers are prioritising their own native districts, ignoring underdeveloped areas of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa like Shangla.

According to the MPA, the much-trumpeted education emergency and other projects have been restricted to Nowshera, Dir and Swabi only. “Even though Shangla is a remote area, it should get more school as per its need.  But, for example, it would get two new schools while Nowshera, Swabi and Dir would get 10 new ones,” he said.

Raising his voice against the ostensible injustice, he posed a question to the audience, “If Gajju Khan Medical College can be set up in Swabi, why can’t Abasin Medical College be set up in Shangla?” He stated that the K-P government approved 800 science laboratories for government schools out of which 200 were to be constructed in Nowshera and the remaining 600 were to be divided among schools of the entire province.



Khan believed few districts are progressing at the expense of other neglected areas and lamented the fact that Shangla’s youth is dying in coalmines due to a lack of opportunities in the district.

In the presence of several elders, education experts, newly-admitted students and their parents, he also announced an award of Rs20,000 for the college.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 3^rd, 2015.