PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan said here on Wednesday that the federal government had withheld Rs17 billion funds of the merged districts after the ouster of Imran Khan as prime minister.

Addressing the oath-taking ceremony of the Peshawar District Bar Association (PDBA), Mr Khan said that since the change of government at the centre, KP had been facing serious problems with regard to release of funds and other matters related to the federal government, according to a statement issued here.

He said that efforts were also under way to exclude development projects of the province from the federal Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP).

“It is feared that the provincial government will have to face problems regarding gas in coming days,” he said.

Mahmood vows to protect rights of the province

Mr Khan said that he had taken oath to safeguard the rights of the province and as chief executive of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa he would make no compromise in this respect. He said everyone irrespective of political affiliations should unite for the rights of the province.

The chief minister urged upon the lawyer community to come forward and support the provincial government in its legal and constitutional struggle to protect the rights of the province.

He termed the lawyer community as an important segment of the society and said that lawyers had played an important role in the struggle for democracy and independence of judiciary in the country and hoped that they would also play their effective role in the struggle for ‘real independence of the country’.

He said that work on 28 different development projects was in progress in the province which would be completed at a cumulative cost of Rs14 billion in the law and justice sector.

He said that the provincial government was also establishing seven district judicial complexes and 25 tehsil judicial complexes in merged districts, which would be completed at an estimated cost of Rs14 billion.

On this occasion, the chief minister announced a special grant of Rs40 million for the PDBA and assured that the projects regarding provision of various facilities to lawyers in the Peshawar judicial complex would be reflected in the budget for next financial year.

Earlier, the chief minister formally administered oath to the newly-elected cabinet of PDBA. Newly-elected president of the bar association Ali Zaman advocate welcomed the chief minister and informed him about the issues of the lawyer community.

Earlier, talking to mediapersons during his visit to the Khyber Teaching Hospital, the chief minister said that the provincial government provided flour to the people on subsidised rate of Rs800 per 20kg under Ramazan package, adding it had been decided to extend this package up to June 30, 2022.

Responding to another question, he termed the statement of Shehbaz Sharif regarding flour smuggling across the border as baseless and said if there was anything then he should have to ask his own institutions instead of blaming the provincial government because all the institutions controlling the border were under the federal government.

Responding to another question regarding flour price hike in the province, he said that flour prices had gone up due to ban on supply of wheat and flour from Punjab to KP.

Later, the chief minister inaugurated the newly-established 20 modular operation theatres at the Khyber Teaching Hospital.

These modern operation theatres have been established at the cost of Rs350 million and thus the KTH had become the first hospital of the province to have such facilities.

Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2022