Educating Pakhtuns need of hour: Hoti

MARDAN: Providing educational and recreational facilities to the young Pakhtun generation is need of the hour to protect them from falling into hands of anti-social and terrorist elements, said Awami National Party leader Azam Khan Hoti here on Monday while speaking at a prize distribution ceremony of district schools` tournament.He said that students of government schools were showing good performance despite lack of facilities at their educational institutions. He said that the government had allocated more funds for the betterment of health and education sectors.He said that five new girls` degree colleges and several boy colleges had been established in Mardan district, which was being given special attention by the ANP-led government.Mr Hoti said that in a very short time they had established Bacha Khan Medical College and Abdul Wali Khan University (AWKU) with its campuses in Swabi and Charsadda districts.“We are also planning to open AWKU campuses in Malakand and Karachi,” he said.The provincial government had allocated Rs3.5 billion to rebuild the Mardan district headquarters hospital and in this connection the government had asked the authorities concerned to start the construction work next month.He said that the service structure of teachers had been approved and rest of their problems would also be addressed.Later, Mr Hoti gave away prizes to students excelling in the tournament – Dawn