Daily Times

PESHAWAR: The Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) Secretariat is yet to start work on establishment of six cadet colleges in tribal areas.

The federal government in 2011 approved establishment of six cadet colleges in trial areas with a total outlay of Rs 6 billions.

As per the documents available with Daily Times, six cadet colleges were to be set up in all the six agencies of FATA including Bajaur, Mohmand, Khyber, Kurram, South Waziristan and Orakzai.

Liaq Khan, Planning and Development assistant director at the FATA Secretariat, Saturday said that the scheme was placed in the clod shelves after the approved fund for the colleges was diverted to reconstruction of fully and partially damaged government schools

He said 600 of such schools had been reopened to students for learning activities after spending funds reserved for establishment of the cadet colleges.

Laiq said construction of the cadet colleges required over 600 kanals of land as well as more time and money, which was not possible for the education directorate presently.

“Two colleges out of six have already been set up and functional in Speenkai and Wana areas of of South Waziristan,” the official said.

Former president Asif Ali Zardari in 2011 had announced establishment of six cadet colleges and a university under the Higher Education Commission Act and Federal University Act 2002.

An official at the FATA Secretariat, pleading anonymity, said that directorate of education was unable to initiate work on the scheme due to shortage of time and funds. He said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) governor should establish a separate cell in the secretariat to finalise work on the establishment of cadet colleges in FATA.

The governor, he said, had been informed that the education directorate was unable to continue the scheme further in 2016-17.