Centre stealing 600MW from K-P daily, says Pervez Khattak

CM says his govt has laid foundations of governance accountable to people

PESHAWAR: Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on Saturday accused the federal government of stealing 600 megawatts of electricity from the province daily and warned that this will not be tolerated.

Talking to a 30-member delegation of the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) led by its president Zia Shahid, he said his government has given the centre a 10-day ultimatum after which it will take direct action against Pesco.



Arif Nizami, Jamil Athar, CPNE Secretary General Aijazul Haque, Mehtab Ahmed Khan, Rahmat Ali Razi, Haroon Shah, Anwer Sajidi, Tahir Farooq, Dr Jabbar Khattak, Ghulam Nabi Chandio, Mushtaq Qureshi, Irfan Athar, Ayaz Khan, Mumtaz Sadiq, Arif Baloch, Rahman Mangrio, Muhammad Bashir and others were present.

Detailing his government’s reforms, Khattak said steps have been taken for good governance, removing the mindset hindering the path to progress, making civil servants answerable to people and introducing transparent accountability in K-P.



He said his government has paved the way for an open style of governance by introducing dozens of laws including the right to services, right to information and whistleblower legislation. “The laws have been enacted in public interest and through use of collective wisdom,” he said, adding that the K-P government has made laws for police reforms as well.

The chief minister said his government has a policy of not interfering in police matters but this does not mean that there is no system of checks and balances in place. “There is certainly a diverse system of checks and balances at work. Safety commissions have been setup at district, regional and provincial levels,” he said.

“We have an exemplary system of local bodies where the authority has been delegated down to the level of village. Education and health are our priorities. The education budget has been raised to Rs100 billion,” he added. Khattak said his government is working on 356 power sector microprojects which will provide 35MW for low cost.



“Minor changes are being made in the Journalists Welfare Fund law and the government will become able to pay Rs1 million to the family of a journalist who dies because of terrorism,” he said, adding that Rs3.122 million have been distributed among the families of 188 journalists from the Journalist Welfare Endowment Fund set up with Rs64 million.

The chief minister also said a scheme to set up newspaper markets in different districts has been made part of current fiscal’s annual development plan and Rs100 million have been set aside for this purpose.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 21^st, 2016.