PESHAWAR: The Qaumi Watan Party has criticised the federal government for slashing Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s share in developmental budget.

Speaking at a press conference at Peshawar Press Club on Tuesday, QWP provincial chairman Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao rejected the 10 per cent increase in the salary of government employees and pension as ad hoc relief in the federal budget and said that it should have been raised by 25 per cent.

He said that flawed economic policies of federal government made life of poor miserable.

“Per capita debt now stands at Rs172,727, which speaks volumes about the poor performance of the rulers,” he added.

Sikandar Sherpao rejects 10pc increase in salary, pension

Sikandar Sherpao said that total debt of the country soared to Rs38 trillion by the end of March 2021. He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan always used derogatory language against political rivals but he was unable to tolerate criticism.

“Imran had claimed to prefer suicide to seeking loans from the international money-lending institutions but now he has buried Pakistan under the IMF loans,” he said and asked the premier to fulfil his promise.

He said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was ignored in the federal budget as it did not have any mega uplift project for the poverty-stricken province.

He predicted that federal government would soon announce increase in price of petroleum products to ensure collection of petroleum levy up to Rs610 billion.

The QWP leader said that Rs26 billion cut in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa development budget would add to financial issues of the province. He added that it was sheer injustice on part of federal government.

He said that federal government allocated Rs54 billion for tribal districts instead of the promised Rs100 billion.

He said that most of the financial problems being faced by the province were due to delay in release of due funds including net hydel profit and NFC award.

Skiandar Sherpao said that other provinces were using the water share of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but federal government failed to pay billions of rupees dues to the province.

He also talked about KP’s rights over natural gas, oil and other natural resources and asked the centre to release the pending funds to remove the prevailing unrest among Pakhtuns.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2021