ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan Monday said that the government was alive to the difficulties being faced by the people in merged tribal areas (erstwhile FATA) and would fulfill all the commitments made with them.

In a meeting with a delegation of senators and members of the National Assembly (MNAs) coming from merged tribal areas, the prime minister said the people of tribal areas had rendered numerous sacrifices and faced immense hardships,

said PM Office statement.

The delegation comprised senators Hidayatullah Khan, Momin Khan Afridi, Mirza Muhammad Afridi, Sajjad Hussain Turi, Aurangzeb Khan and Ayub Afridi and MNAs Gul Dad Khan, Sajjad Khan, Muhammad Iqbal Khan, Jawad Hussain and Religious Affairs Minister Pir Nurul Haq Qadri.

Minister for Defence Pervaiz Khattak, Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser, Leader of the House in Senate Shibli Faraz, Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan, special assistants to PM Naeemul Haq and Iftikhar Durrani also attended the meeting.

The meeting discussed in details the development works in the merged tribal areas and problems being faced by the people there.

The prime minister told the meeting that for the first time, the government had allocated Rs 83 billion in annual budget for fiscal 2019-20 keeping in view the development needs of the merged tribal areas that would help resolve the problems faced by the people there.

He directed the authorities concerned to take the respective public representatives on board regarding the execution of development projects and keep the public priorities under consideration.

The senators and the MNAs expressed their reservations over the imposition of federal excise duty in the merged tribal areas, in what the prime minister assured to look into their grievance.

The KP chief minister also briefed the prime minister about different development projects in the merged tribal areas. —APP