Daily Times

MIRPUR (AJK): Minister for Planning and Development of the Government of Pakistan Ahsan Iqbal has said that despite all the financial difficulties, the federal government would make no reduction in the development budget of Azad Jammu Kashmir.

“We will provide full share of the development budget and will also try not to impose cuts on the region’s non-development budget”, the federal minister said this during his meeting with the AJK president Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhary in the federal metropolis on Tuesday, AJK government statement issued here said on Tuesday night.

Speaking on the occasion, Ahsan Iqbal assured the president that the central government would continue to provide funds to ensure timely completion of the ongoing development projects in Azad Kashmir besides supporting new projects.On the occasion, the AJK president invited the Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal to visit Azad Kashmir.

Accepting the invitation, Ahsan Iqbal said that he would soon pay a detailed visit to Azad Kashmir.

Earlier, President Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry while briefing Federal Minister for Planning and Development about the AJK’s financial difficulties said that there was a dire need that the centre should pay special attention towards Azad Jammu Kashmir so that ongoing development projects could be completed in time and new projects could be initiated so that the process of construction and development in the region continued unabated.