CM pledges to revive lost grandeur of Peshawar

Chief Minister Khyber Pakthunkhwa, Pervez Khattak here Wednesday pledged to revive the lost grandeur of Peshawar and will again make it the City of Flowers.

Addressing a function after performing the groundbreaking ceremony of first ever zoo of Peshawar at the premises of Pakistan Forests Institute (PFI) Peshawar here, the Chief Minister said that establishment of the international standard zoo was the part of Khyber Pakthunkhwa Government's plan regarding beautification and uplift of Peshawar.

The Chief Minister said the zoo would provide better recreational facilities to the citizens of the walled City. He assured to provide development funds for its early completion. The Chief Minister directed the Secretary Environment to ensure its completion within eight months.

Reforms has been introduced in all sectors including education, health and environment and its trickle down effects have been started visible, he said, adding one billion saplings of different species would be planted in five years under PTI's Tsunami Afforestration Programme in Khyber Pakthunkhwa.

We are focusing on strengthening of institutions and development of human resource," he said, adding political interferences in government institutions were ended and confidence of people and investors were restored.

Due to terrorism, the Chief Minister, said investors had winded their business from Khyber Pakthunkhwa and shifted it to other provinces, adding the investors are coming back to Khyber Pakthunkhwa due to business friendly policies of our Government and level playing fields for all.

"The work of lawmakers is legislation and monitoring progress of development works in their respective constituencies for benefits of masses," he said. To provide better recreational facilities to terrorism stricken people of Peshawar, the Chief Minister said food street in Hyatabad would be setup in March while similar facilities would be provided to the citizens of Peshawar City.

Secretary Environment Nazar Hussain Shah said that zoo would be setup on 29 acres land in the premises of Pakistan Forests Institute Peshawar in three phases.In the first phase, he said Rs129 million would be spent on different facilities like boundary walls, wash rooms, cadges and 59 species of different birds and mammals like cranes, ostrich, parrot, pheasants, hog deer, sambar, black buck, monkeys etc would be kept. In addition to recreation, he said, the zoo would serve a better platform for students of biological sciences in research works.