Life returns to normal in Malakand with USAID

The life in Malakand Division returned to normal with the financial assistance and cooperation from United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and help from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government. A special function was held here at local hotel where the USAID and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government celebrated their successes in reviving the conflict and flood affected Malakand Division. Over the past five years, the US government has provided more than 450 million dollars in direct humanitarian assistance in those affected areas by conflict and natural disaster through a variety of projects providing food, water, shelter and other basic necessities. The U.S. government provided cash payment s to needy families, created tent schools for the children of internally displaced families and funded one year’s university education for more than 7,000 students. More than 14,000 affected families received funds to reconstruct their homes. Country Director USAID Andrew Sisson while addressing the function to celebrate the success stories of Malakand said, “The U.S. government is committed to working with the government of Pakistan and the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to help the region to recover from the damages of natural calamity and extremism.” He said U.S. government also provided extensive support to help revive the Malakand Division’s economy that include reconstruction of 261 hotels besides helping in the rebuilding of fisheries, schools, health clinics, water supply system and government buildings. The United States also provided support for reviving the regions tourism industry, one of the key industry of KPK, he added. The Country Director USAID said, “Mire than 100,000 farmers and micro-entrepreneurs received seeds, livestock, tools, training and other assistance to restart their normal life. He said with international assistance, although there were many success stories, but still a lot of things have to be done to fully revive the normal life in KPK. He acknowledged the involvement of community and its participation in the revival and rebuilding programme adding that courage and determination of the local people especially the internally displaced person helped in early recovery of the flood hit and extremism affected areas in Malakand. Information Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mian Iftikhar Hussain while appreciating the assistance and cooperation from USAID in reviving the life in Malakand, said there is need to remove mis-perceptions and misunderstanding between Pakistan, United States and Afghanistan so that they could joint work together to ensure peace and security in the region. He said the KPK government started negotiations with extremists and despite criticism from the international community, it went through the dialogue process but the extremists violated the agreement then the KPK government fought with the extremists elements and got some success. He said the achievements of the KPK are visible before the international community but there is still danger and there is need for joint efforts by the international community to ensure the continuity of the peace. Syed Iftikhar Hussain, who lost his only son and many relatives in various terrorist activities, vowed that the KPK government would continue its mission of fighting the extremism and terrorism for the security of its people. He said its wrong that some terrorists are bad and some are good, saying that terrorists are terrorists and they should be dealt with iron hand if they will not accept the language of negotiations. The KPK Information Minister said dialogue process with Taliban can not be successful unilaterally by Pakistan, Afghanistan or United States therefore, all these three countries should jointly negotiate with Taliban and if talks will failed then they should collectively fight against them removing mis-perceptions among them. Director General Provincial Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Settlement Authority (PaRRSA) Shahid Malik also spoke on the occasion while a number of stalls were organized to show the success stories of the Malakand people. Representatives from different sections of the society including students, teachers, women and artists explained their experience after the revival of their educational institutions, work places and hotels.