PESHAWAR: Members of the treasury benches in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Wednesday accused the previous caretaker government of utilising funds unconstitutionally and called for an investigation into expenditure by it.

During an assembly sitting here, the treasury lawmakers argued that the caretakers exceeded their constitutional mandate by allocating funds for development projects and making recruitment instead of holding general elections.

Finance minister Aftab Alam Afridi demanded that a high-level committee probe the matter and all those responsible be held accountable.

“We [the treasury] will pass the budget 2023-24 but a high-level committee should probe the expenditure by the caretaker government for its accountability,” he said.

Opposition questions legitimacy of budget

Mr Afridi said the opposition talked a lot about the rule of the Constitution but didn’t tell people about its members, who were part of the caretaker government, which ruled the province beyond its constitutional limit.

He said the opposition benches comprising members from the same parties, which formed the caretaker government, were questioning the constitutionality of the budget.

In response to a question of the opposition members, the minister highlighted the successes of the previous Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government, including the Sehat Card health insurance and Bus Rapid Transit service projects, which, he said, benefited the residents and contributed to the return of the PTI to power by sweeping general elections for the third consecutive term.

He announced plans to discuss revising the AGN Kazi Formula with the federal government, citing a significant increase in power tariffs from Rs1.1 in the 90s to Rs30 per unit.

“We [KP] still receive hydel profits based on the outdated Rs1.1 rate,” he said.

Mr Afridi highlighted the impact of the health card on people’s welfare and said it helped people access treatment without resorting to extreme measures like selling organs.

He said not all government projects were aimed at generating revenue as some, like the environmentally friendly BRT project, prioritised people’s welfare only.

Sunni Ittehad Council member from Dir district Mohammad Azam Khan complained about the government’s plans to bring Malakand Division into the tax net.

He said Malakand was declared a tax-free zone for 100 years, so taxing the region would be an injustice.

“Malakand Division shouldn’t be subjected to taxation before 2060,” he said.

Local government minister Akbar Ayub reiterated the government’s zero-tolerance policy towards corruption and said opposition members should file cases against treasury members if they had evidence of their corruption.

“All institutions are on the opposition’s side. You should produce corruption evidence against treasury members. Nobody is going to protect anyone,” he said.

The chief minister’s adviser on culture, tourism, archaeology and museums Zahid Chanzeb said that the federal government should reduce property tax from 25 per cent to six per cent. He complained that out of 19 Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation properties, 17 were handed over to the armed forces by the caretaker government.

Some opposition members questioned the legitimacy of the budget, citing the caretaker government’s actions as unconstitutional.

They wondered why the provincial government was passing a budget they deemed unconstitutional.

The opposition lawmakers also argued that the Bus Rapid Transit project had become a liability, and private hospitals and doctors were benefitting from the Sehat Card insurance programme.

“Why are you legitimising an unconstitutional budget?” asked Shehla Bano of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.

She said anyone who attacked the state’s installations, they would have to go to jail and that was happening to the PTI activists and leaders.

Another member, Jalal Khan, said on one hand, the provincial government claimed that the budget was surplus, but on the other, it had yet to pay a Rs632 billion loan to the Asian Development Bank.

He advocated utility allowances for government employees on par with other provinces.

The opposition MPA also highlighted the presence of thousands of drug addicts in his constituency and urged action against drug pushers.

Ehsanullah Khan of the Pakistan Peoples Party said people in his constituency, the hometown of the chief minister, had to fetch water from distant areas.

He claimed that residents were migrating due to the volatile law and order situation, which also discouraged school teachers and doctors from performing their duties.

The members demanded early resolution of law and order issues in their constituencies.

Sajjad Khan, a Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl member from Lower Kohistan district, demanded a special financial package for his constituency saying residents had left their homes and given their land for dam construction.

He suggested formation of a special coordination committee comprising both treasury and opposition members to secure funds from the federal government.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2024