PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has doled out Rs16.138 billion as the chief minister’s discretionary grants in its first three years in office.

The details obtained by Dawn under the KP Right to Information Act 2013 show that the money was released from 2013 to 2016 in four separate categories under the chief minister’s directives for all districts of the province.

Among the categories are special package, priority projects, district development initiatives (DDI) and rehabilitation of rural roads.

Documents point out disparities in allocations for districts

The discretionary grants are allocated by the chief minister to lawmakers though the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i- Insaf had promised in its election manifesto to put an end to the provision of discretionary grants and development funds to lawmakers.

The documents show that during the financial year 2015-16, Rs7.52 billion were released for special and priority projects and DDI and of that amount, the total expenditure came close to Rs4.80 billion.

In the financial year 2014-15, Rs6.357 billion was released under the same heads, while the expenditure came to around Rs4.85 billion.

In 2013-14, the releases for projects contained in the chief minister’s directives stood at Rs5.79 billion, while expenditure stood at Rs5.470 billion.

Also, under the rehabilitation of rural roads in selected districts of the province, Rs1 billion was spent in 2014-15 and 2015-16.

According to the documents, Rs304.693 million was spent in 2014-15 and Rs701.06 million in 2015-16, while Rs2 billion was allocated for the road rehabilitation in 2015-16.

The details for 2015-16 submitted to the provincial assembly offering the district and constituency wise breakdown of funds throw further light on the regional disparities in fund allocation and show that the districts to which the ruling coalition’s senior leaders belong have received more funding compared to some of the province’s most backward areas.

The figures also show that while some districts and lawmakers have been provided with huge sums but at the same time, not a single person among 22 female and three minority lawmakers belonging to both sides of the house have been allocated even a single penny.

The documents show record of allocation made under the special package and district development initiatives (DDI) for 2015-16.

Peshawar district with 11 provincial assembly seats received largest sum of Rs838 million from the chief minister’s largesse.

Interestingly, former PTI minister from PK-1 Ziaullah Afridi, who was sacked and incarcerated on corruption charges, did not receive a single penny out of this sum.

The chief minister’s home town Nowshera received Rs559 million during the year, while Mardan district received Rs709 million and Swabi Rs348 million.

Abbottabad district got Rs365 million, Haripur Rs279 million, Swat Rs353 million, Dera Ismail Khan Rs197 million and Charsadda Rs312 million. On the other hand, Torghar that falls among the least developed districts of the province received Rs11 million, whereas Chitral district ravaged by floods and earthquakes received Rs73 million. Also, Kohistan district got Rs143 million and Tank Rs30 million.

When contacted, spokesman for the provincial government Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani said the ruling PTI had to give development funds to the assembly members as local bodies were not in place.

He said at that time, no other system was in place to allocate development funds but even then, the money was utilised by the government departments.

“The lawmakers only identified projects,” he said.

The spokesman said during the current year, which is the local governments’ first year in office, not a single penny had been allocated to any lawmaker.

Published in Dawn, May 2nd, 2017