The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) cabinet in a special meeting held here on Tuesday with Chief Minister Mahmood Khan in the chair expressed the resolve to bring into use all the legal and constitutional means for getting provincial rights from the Centre.
Besides raising voice at the Council of Common Interests (CCI), the Supreme Court of Pakistan will also be approached for the purpose.
A special meeting of the Provincial Assembly will also be convened to take MPAs of all political parties into confidence in this regard and, if needed, a protest will be held at Islamabad.
The meeting, besides the cabinet members, was also attended by the provincial chief secretary, additional chief secretary, senior member Board of Revenue and administrative secretaries.
Addressing the cabinet meeting, the chief minister said that the provincial government will use every possible option to get its due rights from the federation. He, however, directed all the departments to make best use of all the resources of the province to increase its revenue further.
He also directed the provincial departments to strictly implement the government’s decisions regarding ban on purchase of new vehicles and to avoid expenditures on unnecessary renovation of offices etc.
He reiterated his resolve to continue the provision of subsidized wheat flour to the public and other public welfare initiatives despite financial constraints.
Provincial Minister for Finance Taimur Salim Jhagra and Special Assistant to Chief Minister K-P on Information Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif while briefing media-persons about the meeting said that the cabinet noted that the federal government was creating financial problems for the K-P government and thus shying away from its constitutional obligations.
They informed reporters that the federal government had made no payment to the province on account of net hydel profit so far.
They said that the provincial government has been providing relief to the flood affectees despite financial constraints. Similarly, the provincial government, on the direction of PTI Chairman Imran Khan, provided aid of Rs200 million to the flood affectees in Sindh and Balochistan provinces.
They said that the provincial government had allocated an amount of Rs14 billion for the rehabilitation and assistance of the flood victims, whereas an amount of Rs30 billion out of the development budget had also been earmarked for the purpose, adding that an amount of Rs20 billion will also be allocated for flood affectees through single treasury account.
They said that so far Rs1 billion had been collected in BoK, and 20 per cent of it will be spent on the flood affectees of Balochistan and Sindh.
Responding to a question regarding the support of opposition parties to the provincial government, Taimur Jhagra remarked that it had been the tradition of K-P politics that opposition parties extend full support to the government for the constitutional rights of the province for which ground has been leveled by taking the opposition parties on board.
He made it clear that provision of funds for the merged districts was the responsibility of the federal government until a fresh NFC award, adding that all the federating units had made commitment to spare three per cent of their NFC share but so far none of them had fulfilled the pledge except the K-P province.
Jhagra maintained that financial issues and flood related issues should not be used for political point scoring, adding that the provincial government is ready to sit and talk with the federal government on all such issues under the umbrella of the constitution.
“The constitution of Pakistan clearly provides for the amicable resolution of issues between the federation and the federating units,” Jaghra said.
He said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had announced a package of Rs10 billion for flood affectees during his visit to Swat which is yet to materialize.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 12th, 2022.
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