PESHAWAR: The participants of a newly established forum have stressed the need for protecting minorities and other vulnerable groups including journalists and polio workers.

The Citizen-Government Form (CGF) was formed last month by the government to promote high-level engagement for better governance and ensuring accountability in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The participants of the forum include representatives of home department, business community, academia,mediaandnon-government organisations.

The second monthly meeting of the forum witnessed more engagement from the citizens as compared to government officials. The meeting discussed issues and concerns related to security.

The initiative of CGF is led home department with the support of `Aitebar` programme. Aftebar is a four-year UKAID-funded programme, being implemented in collaboration with the provincial government. `It is aimed at strengthening trust between citizens and govern-ment in the security and justice sector,` said Dania Gharalbeh, who moderated the discussion.

In its second meeting, the forum discussed the need for protecting minorities and other targeted groups including journalists and polio workers.

The citizen members of the forum requested the home department to share a report of activities undertaken to protectthose groups.

The forum also discussed feasibility of budgeting security plans of public sector institutions within the resources of home department. The participants of the forum also raised the issue of around 100 checkpoints around the city which affected mobility of people.

The meeting also discussed the killing of about 23 mediapersons in more than a decade. Police officials failed to explain whether any of those cases was investigated and the killers were arrested by the law enforcers. AIG Asif Iqbal Momand said that he would look into the issues. He said that checkpoints were important to foil acts of terrorism. Bureau Report