New cadet colleges plan in districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

PESHAWAR, The construction of cadet colleges in militancy-hit districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been facing undue delay as the federal government has not provided any funds after the plan was unveiled several years ago by former president Gen. (retired) Pervez Musharraf, sources said.

They said that Mr Musharraf had promised that the federal government would share the construction cost of these colleges with the provincial government.

The project was aimed at providing quality education to the children of militancy-hit districts of the province. Though education is a provincial subject, the federal government had pledged to share the construction cost of these cadet colleges keeping in view the meagre resources of the province.

The sources said that as a matter of policy, the provincial government had agreed to provide land for the colleges while the federal government had promised to provide funds for construction of building and furniture. Once completed these colleges would meet their annual recurring cost from their own resources to be generated through admission fee, tuition fee etc.

After Mr Musharraf failed to implement the project during his rule the present government also ignored the plan for establishment of cadet colleges in militancy-hit poor districts of the province.

However, the provincial government has made a substantial progress on the plan, as it has purchased land for the establishment of cadet college in Swat at the cost of Rs70 million. Similarly, the community has provided free of cost land for cadet college in Lakki Marwat and the government’s land has been acquired for college in Chitral. Also, site has also been selected for the Charsadda cadet college, officials said.

The first denial of funding the project came from the incumbent federal government soon after the announcement of National Finance Commission (NFC) award. It was of the view that as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would get a big amount from the NFC award it should construct the cadet colleges with its own resources.

After the 18th amendment education became provincial subject and on this pretext the federal government again refused to provide funds for the cadet colleges, sources said, adding diversion of major chunk of federal funds to the rehabilitation and reconstruction projects in flood-affected areas has put a damper on the project.

Still, the provincial government was determined to pursue the case and establish these colleges for imparting quality education to the youths of the terrorism-hit province, the sources said.

The provincial government has taken the plea that since the federal government had made announcement of construction of these colleges it should take its share of responsibility to implement the project.

People of the militancy-hit districts where the cadet colleges were to be established are also unhappy over the federal government’s refusal to implement the project.