Centre should stop politics and instead take steps to honor its promises of NMAs development, says Jhagra
\n PESHAWAR
\nThe provincial minister for health and finance Taimur Saleem Jhagra has demanded of the federal government to shun political scoring over the financial matters and immediately release funds to address ongoing financial issues being faced by province mostly related to the merged districts of the province.
\nHe said the federal government for vested political interests is pushing the province into a quagmire of financial crises, saying the centre should honor the commitment it had made earlier with the KP.
\nHe made these demands while addressing a news conference along with provincial minister for higher education Kamran Bangash.
\nTaimur Saleem Jhagra has also reminded the federal government to issue funds worth Rs118.9 billion to the province under the National Finance Commission (NFC) award and also work out on electricity net profit after Nepra indexation, 29.9 billion for tribal districts.
\nHe said \u201cthere is a total shortfall of more than Rs27 billion. In the last financial year, the share of NFC was around Rs13 billion.
\nThe federation has to pay Rs29.9 billion to the province for the tribal districts development.
\nRs20 billion for the fourth quarter of the financial year 2021-22 has been withheld by the centre for the development of ex-Fata\u201d.
\nThe provincial minister for higher education Kamran Bangash accused the federal government of creating a situation to make KP a bankrupt province.
\nKamran Bangash added that the provincial government has decided to utilize legal options and approach the apex court to secure its due share from the centre.
\nPakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) led federal government was allegedly trying to usurp the financial resources of KP and newly merged areas, he added.
\nThe ministers maintained that KP was raising the financial issues of the province on all forums and trying to divert the attention of the centre toward these issues being faced by KP but futile.
\n\u201cWe want to settle all financial issues with the centre amicably without creating any tension between the federation and the units,\u201d Kamran added.
\nIn his speech at the press conference, Taimur Saleem Jhagra said that the province is demanding Rs118.9 in arrears from the federal government.
\nAfter the merger, the federal government did not pay even the basic budget for the tribal district, adding the provincial government is spending around Rs4.5 billion to provide free health facilities to tribal districts people under the Sehat Card program, he added.
\nTimur Jhagra further said that the federal government kept the current budget of the tribal districts at Rs60 billion instead of 85 billion, adding the allocation was insufficient even for the payments of salaries.
\nHe said that KP is leading the other provinces of the country in completing its developmental projects timely.
\nTo a question, he said that the KP government has diverted its energy and resources to rehabilitate people hit by unprecedented flash floods across the province.
\nThe provincial minister for finance shared that so far 50 percent funds for the ongoing projects has been issued, adding that Planning and Development (P&D) was the ultimate authority to release the remaining funds for developmental schemes in the province.
\nThe KP government has released around Rs56 billion to different sectors for their expenditures, he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Centre should stop politics and instead take steps to honor its promises of NMAs development, says Jhagra PESHAWAR The provincial minister for health and finance Taimur Saleem Jhagra has demanded of the federal government to shun political scoring over the financial matters and immediately release funds to address ongoing financial issues being faced by province […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-294441","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n