PESHAWAR: Despite the passage of first quarter of the current financial year, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has yet to approve the annual development programme for the seven newly-merged tribal districts, creating hurdles to the ongoing projects in the conflict-hit region.

Senior officials told Dawn that delay in the approval of the multibillion rupees worth of ADP had not only caused financial constraints but also deprived hundreds of project employees of their salaries.

They said delay in the payment of salaries triggered unrest among project employees who staged demonstration in Peshawar and blocked the road on Tuesday.

Officials also say hundreds of project employees not paid salary

The officials complained that 1,600 contractual employees attached with the directorate of health had not been paid salaries for the last four months.

Unlike other department, only the directorate of health of the defunct Fata was merged with the provincial health department.

The government had established mobile health units for the former Fata in 2003 and salaries of the employees were paid from the project. The secretariat had appointed around 3,000 employees in different projects including 1,600 in the mobile health units.

Employees called off their protest after getting assurance from senior officials of the secretariat.

Officials said that salaries of other contract and project employees had been withheld due to delay in approval of the ADP by the chief minister.

The federal government had allocated Rs 22 billion ADP for defunct Fata in the annual budget in May and civil secretariat finalised sector wise allocations for the ongoing and new schemes in seven districts.

They said the hasty merger of tribal districts with KP had created legal and administrative vacuum and federal and provincial governments did not work out proper mechanism to remove confusion.

“Now, it is neither Fata any longer nor it has become part of the KP province yet. It is rather a defective territory now, and it is unclear who controls it at present,” said an official in the secretariat.

He said seven tribal districts had been declared part of KP after 25th amendment in the constitution, but certain powers still lay with the provincial governor under the Fata Interim Regulation, 2018.

Sources said the mechanism for the release of funds from the federal government to the civil secretariat for the former Fata had been changed in the wake of amendment to the Constitution.

They said before their merger with the province, the federal government used to release funds to tribal districts directly.

“Now, the secretariat for the defunct Fata will send a request to the federal government through the KP government for the release of funds,” said another official.

He said the secretariat for the seven merged districts had sent a request to the centre through the KP government on Sept 2, asking for release of funds, but in vain.

“The secretariat recently sent another request to the provincial government to get funds from center for bearing its current expenditures,” he said, adding that financial situation was getting worse due to the ‘procedural hindrances’.

Sources said Rs4 billion of the previous ADP for tribal districts could not be utilised apparently due to the merger-related issues.

They said first of the four quarters of the financial year had passed but seven tribal districts did not get the ADP funds despite the allocation of Rs22 billion by the federal government.

“Usually construction remains suspended in the hilly areas of tribal districts from December to March due to severe weather and the ADP will not be utilised due to natural conditions,” said an official.

He said the federal government had allocated funds for tribal districts and the secretariat had finalised sector wise allocation and the document was waiting approval of the chief minister.

Officials said new schemes had been included in the proposed ADP and that 30 per cent of the allocated amount would go to the new schemes and the rest to ongoing ones.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2018