PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur on Friday said that his government won’t allow the centre to usurp the rights of the province.

“The federal government wants to take control of our [KP’s] carbon credits, but we won’t let this happen,” Mr Gandapur told a meeting of the Climate Change Council in Islamabad via video link, according to an official statement issued by the Chief Minister’s House here.

In the meeting chaired by the prime minister, the chief minister said that his government would go all-out to protect the province’s resources and the residents’ rights.

He complained about the “unjust and unfair attitude” of the federal government and said that his government would make no compromise on the province’s legitimate rights.

Mr Gandapur said that KP had 45 per cent of the country’s forests, while half of the country’s carbon credits were generated by it.

Complains about ‘hurdles’ by centre to appointment of new chief secretary

He said that the provincial government would never allow anyone to usurp those assets.

The chief minister said that 80 per cent of the forests in the province were owned by the people, and therefore, it was his responsibility as the head of the government to protect the rights of the people.

He also complained about “hurdles” by the centre to the appointment of the new chief secretary to the province and said that if the federal government thought that the province would give up its constitutional rights, then it was mistaken.

Mr Gandapur asked the centre to clear the dues of the province without delay, according to the official statement.

He also expressed “concerns” about the cases being registered against electricity consumers in the province and raids conducted on their premises and said that the federal government should better discuss the matter with KP instead of carrying out that crackdown.

The chief minister said that the federal government received Rs300 billion per year as tax on the tobacco produced by the province.

He added that like the centre, taxation was the right of the province as well.

“We will give the due tax share to the centre but we can’t let it usurp our money,” he said.

Mr Gandapur said that the federal government should take the provincial government into confidence in all its matters and decide the way forward on the issues regarding the constitutional rights of the province through mutual discussion.

In the past, too, the chief minister has complained against the centre over the denial of dues to the province.

In a meeting at the Chief Minister’s House after a cabinet meeting on March 9, Mr Gandapur told reporters that despite several reminders, the federal government didn’t make the due payments to his government.

He said that his party had political and ideological differences with those ruling the centre but still, his government wanted a good working relationship with the federal government.

The chief minister insisted that the centre had to clear the province’s Rs1,510 billion dues, but those payments hadn’t been made despite several reminders.

“I suggest that if the centre can’t do that, it should subsidise power and gas for us [KP] and deduct the amount of that subsidy from our dues,” he said.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2024