Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the maiden province of the country which has established local government system in the real sense in the country by delegating financial and all other necessary powers to the local government and devolving all departments from gross root level.

This, he said while talking to Marc-Andre Franche, country director UNDP who called on him at CM House in Peshawar on Friday. Besides, Senior Minister Sikandar Hayat Sherpao, ACS and Secretary local government were present on the occasion.

The country director of UNDP expressed sympathy with CM KP over the terrorist incident of Bacha Khan University. The UNDP director said that he was impressed by the LG act passed by the KP government. “You are the only province which has a real local government law”, he maintained.

Talking to UNDP representatives, Khattak said that no province of the country had given both money and power to the local government.

He added that there was a separate secretariat to monitor developmental schemes initiated by LG. He further told the UNDP representative that the present government had stopped political interference in the affairs of the local government and evolved a clear policy in this regard to bring transparency.

The CM elaborated that women development, health, education, agriculture and other sectors had been made compulsory sectors for the LG to spend on it. “30% of budget has been allocated only for development”, he asserted.

Khattak further said that LG had the capacity to spend the allocated amount efficiently. “There will be strict monitoring of the schemes to spend the funds and complete the project within the stipulated time”, he explained.

The secretary local government informed the UNDP representative that soon developmental schemes would be launched in selected districts of the province. Franche showed interest in capacity building of local government representatives. He hoped the success of the KP government in strengthening local government system would success of the whole of the country.