LAHORE: The Khyber Pakh­tunkhwa government has done nothing for the people except corruption and it has ignored the plight of the KP masses as public money is being misused to promote PTI propaganda.

This was stated by Federal Infor­mation Minister Attaullah Tarar while sharing a ‘White Paper’ on the performance of the PTI government in KP at a press conference here on Sunday.

Mr Tarar said that the masses had given mandate to different parties in different provinces keeping in view the promises made by these parties in their manifestos. The PTI has been in power in the KP for almost 11 years and during this entire period, the people have witnessed only bad governance and corruption.

The federal minister claimed that financial irregularities in the KP government are estimated to be around Rs152 billion.

Minister shares White Paper on Rs152bn financial irregularities in province

There were fraudulent payments worth Rs130 million; Rs84 billion have been estimated as misclassified expenditures and suspicious disbursement of Rs510 million has been calculated, Mr Tarar said.

Mr Tarar said the financial irregularities have been caused due to non-seriousness and zero focus on governance by the KP government.

About the KP debt crisis, the minister said the KP’s overall debt is Rs725bn and if not addressed, it would surge to Rs2,555bn by 2030.

He said that annual debt servicing costs the KP government Rs355bn, equivalent to the province’s development budget.

He said the KP government did nothing in more than one decade of rule; no dam was constructed and not a single unit of electricity was produced in the province.

Through the KP Universities Amendment Bill, 2024, he said, the control of these educational institutions has been given to the chief minister, undermining academic autonomy and facilitating political appointments there.

Teachers are protesting on the roads of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as 50 illegal appointments have been made in Nowshera Medical Complex despite anti-corruption establishment notices, Mr Tarar said.

He said the ghost companies have been set up in the province and have been paid a huge sum of money of provincial kitty to use these funds for PTI propaganda.

Regarding police reforms in KP, the minister said if the reforms have been implemented, then why the law and order situation is so bad in the province.

He said that Rescue-1122 vehicles have been used in PTI political protests diverting emergency resources towards political agenda.

He alleged that the cost of DI Khan and Bannu projects was inflated from Rs100 million to Rs2.6bn just to misuse the funds.

Unfortunately, the KP government has witnessed increasing violence, especially in Kurram district, while the PTI government focused on attacking the federation instead of coming to the rescue of the Kurram people.

“The KP government has nothing to say on the fake driving licence scandal, timber mafia scandal, bus rapid transit corruption and its poor governance.

He said that the biggest problem of KP was its Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur and the PTI leadership.

About the performance of the federal government, Mr Tarar said that the country has been saved from default, and now the government’s entire focus was on ensuring stability and growth.

He asserted that everyone was now acknowledging that the country’s economy was getting stable and even the PTI founder has acknowledged it.

Comparing the current statistics with last year’s data, he asserted prices of essential items were coming down. All micro-economic indicators are improving in the country, he further asserted.

Responding to a question, he said the PPP wanted to make Sindh a modern province and the provincial government was focusing on the country’s growth.

Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2024