The Central Development Working Party (CDWP), chaired by Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives\/ Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Professor Ahsan Iqbal approved seven development projects worth Rs34.66 billion and recommended two major schemes amounting to Rs44.62 billion to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) for final approval.<\/p>\n
The CDWP cleared nine projects in total, spanning higher education, governance, health, physical planning, power, and information technology sectors, reflecting the government\u2019s push to accelerate development initiatives across the country, a news release said on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Among the approved projects, the forum sanctioned the \u201cEstablishment of University of Turbat (Phase-II)\u201d costing Rs1,930.330 million. The project includes extensive civil infrastructure \u2013 new academic block, boys\u2019 and girls\u2019 hostels, faculty and staff residences, internal roads, drainage, water supply, sewerage, pathways, electrification, IT networking, furniture, equipment, books, laboratory machinery, vehicles, and project coordination support \u2013 aimed at making the institution a fully modernized higher education facility.<\/p>\n
While approving the project, Ahsan Iqbal reaffirmed that Balochistan\u2019s economic and educational uplift remained a central pillar of the PML-N government\u2019s development vision.<\/p>\n
He recalled that during previous PML-N tenures, numerous universities and sub-campuses were established in remote parts of the province and financial assistance was extended to key institutions such as BUITEMS and Sardar Bahadur Khan Women\u2019s University.<\/p>\n
He said 5,000 scholarships were earlier awarded to students from Balochistan and ex-FATA, a programme now expanded in its second phase, alongside overseas scholarships for legal education.<\/p>\n
The minister stressed that university leadership must invest in the intellectual growth of youth, build national consciousness and expose students to wider learning opportunities, including study visits to Islamabad and major cities.<\/p>\n
The CDWP also restored the previously reduced allocation for laboratory equipment, enhanced funding for books, and directed the expansion of the university\u2019s library and installation of solar energy systems -decisions widely appreciated by the members.<\/p>\n
The forum also approved the revised \u201cAutomation of Pakistan Post\u201d worth Rs6,644.830 million, to be financed through the Export-Import Bank of Korea (KExim).<\/p>\n
The project seeks to automate 2,761 post offices, introduce a Core Banking System, strengthen ICT infrastructure, and modernize domestic and international operations, including remittances, COD services, insurance, micro-payments, social transfers and logistics management.<\/p>\n
It includes development of a primary data centre with a disaster recovery site, digitization of COD-based e-commerce services, and full automation of operational workflows aimed at reducing costs, improving efficiency and aligning Pakistan Post with global postal standards.<\/p>\n
Briefing the CDWP, officials noted that the project \u2013 originally approved in 2017 at Rs2.2 billion \u2013 remained stalled due to policy discontinuity, causing its cost to rise to Rs6.5 billion and resulting in significant revenue loss. Pakistan Post reportedly lost around 65 percent of its market share to digitally advanced competitors during the period of delay.<\/p>\n
Approving the revival, the minister said Pakistan Post\u2019s digital transformation was now unavoidable, adding that timely automation would enable the organization to recapture a major share of the booming e-commerce market, enhance revenues and reposition the institution as a sustainable, modern public service entity.<\/p>\n
The CDWP also cleared key projects in multiple sectors including Establishment of Daanish School at Chitral, KP (Rs3,319.729 million); Enhancement of Capacity of Federal Government Entities in Preparation of Policies, Programmes and Projects (Umbrella Programme) (Rs5,431.500 million); Establishment of Stroke Intervention & Expansion of Critical Care\/Cardiac Facilities at PIMS (Rs7,220.956 million); Project Readiness Financing for Punjab Intermediate Cities Improvement Investment Program (Rs4,836.717 million); Rehabilitation of Khyber I, II & III and Nagar Khas I & II Hydropower Stations, E&M Equipment for Chalt, Energy Efficiency and Gender Components (KfW Grant Program) (Rs5,274.510 million) .<\/p>\n
A revised scheme titled \u2018Construction of Link Highway (4-lane) from Umerkot at LSM to Narang Mandi, including Narowal Eastern Bypass,\u2019 costing Rs28,964.144 million was forwarded to ECNEC for approval.<\/p>\n
The revised PC-I reflects a reduced, optimized scope including a 23-km stretch from Umerkot to Gujjar Chowk (Package-I) and the 10.60-km Narowal Eastern Bypass (Package-III), with road profiles updated following the August 2025 flood event to meet new high-flood-level standards<\/p>\n
Another project namely \u2018Pehur High Level Canal Extension Project\u2019 worth Rs15,654.190 million was forwarded to ECNEC.<\/p>\n
The scheme \u2013 financed through the ADB, KP government and local farmers \u2013 includes pressure pipelines, two new canal systems, regulators, bridges, watercourses, cross-drainage structures, precise land leveling and high-efficiency irrigation systems over 250 hectares.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Central Development Working Party (CDWP), chaired by Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives\/ Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Professor Ahsan Iqbal approved seven development projects worth Rs34.66 billion and recommended two major schemes amounting to Rs44.62 billion to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) for final approval. The CDWP cleared nine …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":89648,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89633"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89649,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89633\/revisions\/89649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}