Charge sheet issued against K-P govt

PML-N's white paper alleges financial irregularities, mismanagement

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LAHORE:

The PML-N led government on Sunday issued a white paper on the alleged financial irregularities and mismanagement of PTI's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government, strangely at a time when it is finally engaged in holding dialogue with the opposition party to bring down political temperature. The white paper was unveiled in a press conference held in Lahore.

Federal Minister for Information Atta Tarrar issued the charge-sheet of corruption and financial mismanagement, all the while ducking questions regarding PPP led Sindh government's performance.

Tarar put the financial irregularity and financial loss at Rs192 billion with Rs84 billion in misclassified expenditure, Rs130 million in fraudulent payments and Rs510 million in suspicious disbursements.

"The money allocated under different heads was used for political activities namely sit-ins and also to fund PTI's social media army. The K-P's total debt is Rs725 billion and by 2030, it will be over Rs2,000 billion. They require Rs355 billion just for debt servicing," he added.

He said the provincial government has done nothing to reduce the debt in the last ten years. Despite much hullabaloo over dams, they have installed only a single electricity production project.

Referring to a recent statement of former prime minister Imran Khan, he said the PTI founder has himself admitted that the country's economy is stabilizing under the PML-N's rule.

He said the PTI has done nothing for price management. The PTI government in the K-P brought new cars despite economic stringency.

Tarar said the PTI also brought universities under the control of the provincial government. He said the CM might be an excellent administrator but he is not an academic.

"They have not fixed their hospitals. He said the K-P is riddled with corruption scandals, ranging from BRT scandal, to timber mafia, to tobacco mafia," he said.

Strangely when the minister was asked how much the government spent on stopping the PTI from marching into the capital, he said he does not have an exact figure. He said no one in the K-P will be able to answer these questions.

Responding to the press conference, Adviser to the K-P CM on Financial Affairs Muzamil Aslam said if this is the kind of allegations the PML-N is left with and if Atta Tarar is their main choice on matters, then they should give up.

"The entire press conference was a pack of lies. Tarar does not know anything about economics and he should not have embarrassed himself like this.

"Our total debt accumulated in the last seventy-five years. Our total debt is equal to the debt the federal government takes every year."

He said for the first time in the history of the country, the K-P government would pay ten percent of total debt back to the center on January 1 which would be around Rs70 billion.

"Our domestic debt is zero. We have the most cash reserve in history of around Rs150 billion and this was one fourth of our total debt."