PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan on Friday alleged that the federal government was sabotaging the process of development in the province’s tribal districts by withholding their due share in funds.

“The federal government released only Rs5 billion out of Rs55 billion development budget for newly-merged districts and Rs60 billion out of a total Rs85 billion for current expenditure,” Mr Mahmood told representatives of tribal districts in a meeting at the Chief Minister’s House here on Friday.

The chief minister said the denial of the province’s rights was an undemocratic behaviour on part of the centre and blatant injustice with the KP residents, especially residents of tribal districts.

He said if the ‘imported’ federal government didn’t have the will or capacity to work for the development of tribal districts, it should refrain from creating obstacles for the provincial government.

Mr Mahmood said the ex-Fata’s merger with KP was a turning point for the region’s development and prosperity but the indifferent attitude of the federal government on the matter was a matter of concern.

Insists Shehbaz govt partly released uplift funds for ex-Fata

“We [provincial government] have left no stone unturned for the development and rehabilitation of tribal districts, but the indifferent attitude of the federal government [towards the region’s uplift] is a matter of concern,” he said.

The chief minister said that his government had successfully completed the Fata-KP merger process despite numerous challenges and that in most areas, the provincial government had to “start from zero” as no attention was paid to those areas in the past.

He said that his government took concrete steps to bring the people of tribal districts into mainstream and that the operations of government departments were extended to that region and a special development programme was initiated with the sole purpose of addressing the longstanding issues.

“During the last four years, we [KP government] took multiple steps resulting in significant improvement in the overall services delivery system.

Despite multiple challenges, we proved that we are not only committed to the development and prosperity of NMDs but have also gone beyond our capacity for it,” he said.

Mr Mahmood told the people’s elected representatives that absorption of the Levies and Khasadars forces into regular police, regularisation of ex-Fata project employees and provision of medical equipment and emergency medicine were among the important initiatives of the provincial government.

He added that the other significant measures for the development of tribal districts included the grant of scholarships to male and female students, recruitment of teachers, solarisation of schools, establishment of playgrounds and educational institutions, upgradation of schools and colleges, establishment of science and information technology laboratories, construction and rehabilitation of roads, establishment of micro-hydropower plants, construction of new grid stations, and installation of power transformers and feeders.

The chief minister said development of sectors like industries, tourism, agriculture, irrigation, and law and justice in tribal districts were the top priorities of his government.

Former federal minister for religious affairs Noorul Haq Qadri, provincial ministers Anwar Zeb and Iqbal Wazir and other members of national and provincial assemblies from tribal districts were present in the meeting.

Published in Dawn, january 7th, 2023