Letter to PM: K-P minister seeks funds for quake-hit schools

States funds pledged by former PM still not released

PESHAWAR: Provincial Minister for Elementary and Secondary Education Muhammad Atif Khan has written a letter to Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi seeking release of funds pledged by the federal government for rehabilitation of schools damaged in the 2005 earthquake.

The letter stated that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had announced Rs4 billion for reconstruction of the quake-hit educational institutes, but the allocated funds had not yet been released.

The education minister wrote that reconstruction of public schools in the affected areas had been carried out under a plan prepared by the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA), “but a massive renovation still remains which will cost an estimated Rs9.36 billion”.

“The issue of arrangement of funds was highlighted at the Interprovincial Education Conference in February 2016, but no actions have since been taken,” read the letter from the minister.

The minister stated that he had requested the federal government to provide the required funds in order to fulfil the goal of providing proper educational facilities to the children of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.