PESHAWAR, July 24: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Wednesday said it would defeat terrorism by providing the local youths with jobs and reasonable wages, and reviving sick industrial units in the province.
The announcement was made by provincial labour, industries and commerce minister Bakht Baidar Khan during a news conference at Peshawar Press Club.
The minister said the minimum wages had been increased from Rs8,000 to Rs10,000 and all private educational institutions, hospitals, clinics, laboratories, security agencies and other privately-run enterprises in the province were bound to follow it.He said those found guilty of paying less than the minimum wages to employees would face six months imprisonment and Rs20,000 fine.
“One of the main causes of the deteriorating law and order situation in the province is the people’s poor economic conditions and therefore, our government has decided to revive all closed industries and establish new industrial estates to create job opportunities and accommodate the maximum youths,” he said.
Mr Bakht directed the labour department officials to immediately begin work on the registration of the home-based workers, who, he said, could be included in the category of workers and facilitate them with all incentives.
He said the government had trained around 38,000 in different fields in the province who would be accommodated shortly, while the people recruited during the last government’s term would have to pass through screening process to ensure implementation of merit policy.
The minister said militancy, floods and energy crisis had affected Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the most and thus, causing closure of industries and massive unemployment.
He said the new industrial policy would facilitate industrialists and traders in the province.
Mr Bakht said improvement in the security situation was restoring confidence of foreign and local investors and that was a good sign for revitalisation of terrorism-torn economy and industries in the province.
He said terrorism was the root cause of growing unemployment, which could only be addressed by attracting foreign and local investment.
“We have devised a plan to generate own electricity to provide it to the industrialists at cheap rates to revive industries, improve local economy and accommodate unemployed people. We are looking for attracting foreign and local investment to revive the war-ravaged industries and support feeble economy of the province as soon as possible,” he said.
The minister said investment to the province would be attracted at all cost and that the government would provide industries with electricity at subsidised rate.
He said South Korean businessmen and industrialists were keen to invest money in the local energy sector and offer monetary assistance for revival of industries in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Mr Bakht said the provincial government was looking for support from the United States Agency for International Development for development and re-energising industrial and economic activities in the region.
He said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had not been given its due share of electricity by the National Power Transmission Centre and that the province was generating 5,500 megawatts electricity against the demand of 2,400 megawatts.
“If the international community wants to eliminate terrorism, then it should come forward and invest in our province for supporting industrial sector and feeble economy,” he said.
The provincial organiser of Watan Pall Labour Organisation and officials of the relevant departments were also present on the occasion.