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Austerity unavoidable to improve AJK govt depts performance: Ishaq

MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu Kashmir government is committed to taking austerity measures and is taking revolutionary steps to enhance the performance of the government departments and to provide people all the basic facilities and justice at their door-step, said Senior Minister Sahibzada Mohammad Ishaq Zaffar, here on Tuesday.

Talking to PPI, he said effective steps are being taken to make sure the cent percent attendance in the government departments and particularly in educational institutions.

Absent and negligent employees will be sacked from their services and will be punished heavily, he added.

Ishaq Zaffar said that with complete cooperation of people, the AJK government will continue the discouraging process of corrupt and dishonest officials.

He said laws will be implemented strictly to cleanse the society of evils and make sure the service to the common man for which the government has got a unprecedented mandate.

The senior minister said that formation of cabinet is discretion of Prime Minister Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry.

He said the government is taking steps to further decrease the non-developmental expenditures. The ceiling of the petrol, deisel, telephone and TA and DA will be set for the ministers and advisers and bureaucrats, he said. He said additional government vehicles were taken back from bureaucrats and were deposited in the transport pool.

Ishaq Zaffar praised the bold Kashmir policy of Chief Executive General Parvez Musharraf, which, he said, has raised the morale of striving Kashmiris very high.

He said the presence of General Musharraf in AJK on February 5 will send positive signals to Kashmiri people and will prove a morale booster for them. It will help in building a powerful public opinion against India, he added.

He said Kashmiris are fighting the war of security and integrity of Pakistan and it is moral obligation of every Pakistani to express solidarity with Kashmiri people.

He thanked General Musharraf for showing keen interest in Kashmir issue and hoped that it will lead this longstanding issue towards a final solution.-PPI