Work begins on Hazara amusement city

 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sports and Tourism Minister Syed Aqil Shah launched work on
 project at Harno here on Sunday.

The project would be completed on public-private partnership to provide recreational facilities to people.

Speaking at the launching ceremony, Mr Shah said that the government was taking steps to revive tourism and sports activities in the province. He said that work had been started on three major tourism projects in Hazara, including water sports (Khanpur-Haripur), eco-tourism (Naran-Kaghan) and the amusement city project at Harno in Abbottabad. He said that Rs3 billion estimated cost of these projects would be managed by Tourism Corporation Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Mr Shah said that 20 per cent income earned through each of the project would be spent on the development of the respective area, while priority would be given to residents in different jobs.

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Sethi House reopens for tourists

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Archaeology, Museums, Sports and Youth Affairs Syed Aqil Shah on Friday inaugurated the renovated Sethi House and declared its lower portion open for the visitors.
Secretary Archeology and Museums Syed Jamaluddin Shah, Director Archeology Dr Shah Nazar, Ms Farida Nishtar and Ghulam Dastagir Sethi were also present. Sethi House had been built in 1884 and the present government had issued funds for its renovation. The renovation work on its lower portion has been completed.

Syed Aqil Shah said the street from main road to Sethi House would be developed and the whole Sethi Mohallah would be made a hub of tourists. He said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province was full of tourist attraction sites, including Gandhara and Buddhist civilisations.
He said soon tour packages would come to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from the whole country and the visitors would witness worth seeing sites, including the Sethi House. Syed Aqil Shah said Gor Gathri would be

KP reinstates 4,000 sacked employees

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has restored more than 4,000 civil servants, who were sacked by the second Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government in the province after declaring them redundant, officials say.

The restoration of their services has come after the Election Commission of Pakistan’s ban on ‘all kinds of recruitments’ in the public sector, according to official documents available with Dawn.

“The provincial authorities are of the view that the decision to restore their services had been taken much before the Election Commission’s decision, banning the new recruitments,” said an official.

However, according to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Establishment Department’s appointment letter, in one particular case, the restored employee, who has been appointed against a BPS-07 post, has been informed that his appointment ‘shall be considered

Vast govt land reoccupied in D.I. Khan

Around 7,090 kanals of government land in Dera Ismail Khan district has been reoccupied by the people evicted earlier, official sources have said.

The department got possession of the farmlands after the standing committee on agriculture, livestock and corporation department of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly took notice of the matter in 2011.

However, occupants expelled staff of the department and took over the lands again, sources said.

“Lessees, who were expelled with the help of police and the district administration, have reoccupied lands,” an official said, adding that the department and the local administration were helpless to expel land grabbers.

According to the house’s committee report, five seed farms measuring 7,090 kanals and 12 marlas belonging to the agriculture department were leased out to several people in the district. However, the leaseholders refused to hand over possession to the department after termination of the agreement.

eturn of FC personnel to KP: Interior minister, secretary issued contempt notices

The Peshawar High Court on Thursday issued contempt notices to the interior minister and secretary for violating its order for redeployment of Frontier Constabulary platoons to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from other parts of the country.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Khalid Mahmood directed the interior minister and the secretary to submit their respective written replies to the contempt notice and show cause why they should be not proceeded against for committing contempt of the court for disregarding and flouting its clear order issued on Nov 6, 2012.

The bench later fixed the next hearing into the case for Feb 19.

Peshawar to get mass transit system

With completion of its term only a few weeks away, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has planned mass transit system for the provincial capital.

Highlighting performance and achievements of the transport department during the last four and a half years, provincial minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain told a news conference on Thursday said a special initiative feasibility study on mass transit system for Peshawar had been approved and that would be conducted with the technical assistance of Asian Development Bank.

He added that a memorandum of understanding had already been signed under which the bank would provide $372,000 million for the study work on which is likely to get underway next month.

Delay in Peshawar road project: Many top officials facing contempt

The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday issued show cause notices to the federal communication and finance secretaries, the National Highway Authority (NHA) chairman and two other officials for explaining the delay in construction of Peshawar Northern Bypass Road despite their assurances given two years ago about speedy work on the project.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Khalid Mahmood directed the two secretaries, the chairman, the director general of Peshawar Development Authority and the provincial secretary of communication and works department to submit their replies and explain why the show cause notice should not be converted into a contempt of court case as they had deliberately violated the court’s order.

It later fixed the next hearing for Feb 27 directing the officials in question to submit their respective replies.

Scholarship programme ray of hope for poor students

My mother has told me to save money from my monthly scholarship, which is to last a year, for higher education,” according to a shinning student of University of Peshawar.

Rizwanullah, student of second semester of bachelor of studies in UoP environmental sciences department, told Dawn that he would have been unable to get admission to the university had the provincial government not financially supported him by giving him scholarship.

“My parents admitted me to a government school as they couldn’t afford to pay my Rs500 monthly tuition fee when I was a student of a private school,” he said.

Rizwanullah, resident of Hassankhel area of Frontier Region Peshawar, got 856 of 1,050 marks (81 per cent) in Secondary School Certificate examination in 2009. He later passed intermediate examination in 2011 from Government Higher Secondary School, Sama Badhber, FR Peshawar.

The youngster remained the top first position holder among the students of government schools by obtaining 838 of 1,100 marks (77 per cent).

Sony ignites talk of PS4 unveil with Playstation meeting

Sony Corp will this month host its first major Playstation meeting in two years, sparking a flare-up in online speculation the Japanese consumer electronics giant is preparing to unveil the successor to its 70 million-selling PS3 games console.

Sony declined to say whether it would release a new product at the meeting in New York on February 20. “We will be talking about the Playstation business,” spokesman Masaki Tsukakoshi said on Friday. A Google search for “Sony Feb 20 Playstation” returned more than 7 million hits.

The last time Sony held a Playstation event, in January 2011, it presented a protoype of its handheld Vita console. Before that, it convened a gathering in 2005 two months after it first demonstrated the PS3 concept. A meeting in 1999 revealed designs for the PS2.