ISLAMABAD: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Minister Taimur Khan Jhagra on Sunday lashed out at the federal government for empowering the Planning Commission deputy chairman to disburse funds allocated for the tribal districts.
He was responding to a federal government notification to form a committee, headed by the Planning Commission deputy chairman to disburse Rs 55 billion in development funds for tribal districts.
Addressing a press conference along with KP Higher Education Minister Kamran Khan Bangash in Islamabad, Mr Jhagra called the move unconstitutional.
He announced to challenge the notification in the court and said it was a setback to the efforts to develop tribal districts.
“We will challenge the notification in the court this week as it has made the National Finance Commission ineffective,” Mr Jhagra said.
He said the governor was the constitutional head of a province but with his addition to the committee, he has been made subordinate to a bureaucrat.
Jhagra calls federal govt’s notification ‘unconstitutional’
This will not make a difference to the governor, who he said was appointed by the “imported
government,” but for the people of KP, this will be akin to disrespecting their elected representatives.
“The notification was issued despite the passage of the budget by the provincial assembly,” Mr Jhagra said, adding this was an insult to the people of KP.
He said the KP government has serious concerns over the security issues in tribal districts.
“However, the imported government has stopped all development work and funds are not being released to pay salaries to government employees in the region,” the KP finance minister claimed.
Currently, the provincial government was paying all the expenditures in the tribal districts, he claimed.
Mr Jhagra claimed that for the first time in history, the previous Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government had started working to uplift tribal districts and focused on the health, education and welfare of the people.
He said that in 2018, then prime minister Imran Khan had increased the development budget of tribal districts to Rs137bn, but the current government has cut it to only Rs60bn.
“So far only Rs5bn have been released for the development of the tribal districts,” Mr Khagra claimed.
“According to the 25th constitutional amendment, the federal government is responsible for the financial needs of tribal districts but the notification has made the NFC ineffective,” he added.
While replying to a question, Mr Jhagra said that even PTI’s opponents Aimal Wali Khan and journalist Saleem Safi have rejected the notification.
Mr Jhagra’s comments came a day after KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan criticised the Centre over the same issue.
The committee notified by the government had no legal standing and was unconstitutional after the enactment of the 25th Constitutional amendment, Mr Khan had said while talking to reporters in Peshawar.
“We will challenge the notification at every level as it is tantamount to usurping the rights of the province,” Mr Khan had said.
Mr Khan had said the entire development planning and identification of projects under the ‘Accelerated Implementation Programme’ had been carried out by the provincial government, whereas the Centre was hesitant to provide funds to tribal districts due to political motives.
He said it was unfortunate that the federal government didn’t provide the budgeted funds to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa while giving away huge funds to MNAs of the ruling PDM under the Sustainable Development Goals.
Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2023
