Rs192b supplementary budget passed

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Wednesday approved a supplementary budget of Rs192.74 billion for the current fiscal year (2024-25), clearing 62 funding demands covering additional departmental expenditures.

The move sparked a backlash from opposition parties, who staged a fiery protest and a walkout, decrying the move as evidence of the provincial government's flawed planning and faulty economy.

Speaker Babar Saleem Swati presided over the session, which quickly turned contentious after he invoked special powers to bulldoze opposition cut motions and fast-track the budget.

Opposition members, branding the exercise a matter of "disastrous policy failure", alleged this marked the 14th supplementary budget under PTI's 13-year rule. They lambasted the frequent recourse to such budgets, arguing that when unchecked expenditures balloon year after year and questioning the government's proclaiming of a surplus.

Dr Ibadullah, Leader of the Opposition, waded into the debate with figures. "Surplus doesn't fit the bill," he said, pointing to the staggering provincial debt rising from Rs150 billion to Rs800 billion under successive PTI administrations.

He questioned the logic of approving patchwork budgets when nearly a third of development funds had gone unspent and alleged Rs200 billion in financial irregularities per the auditor general's findings.