PESHAWAR: Both treasury and opposition members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly from tribal districts on Monday announced that they would boycott the entire budget session against the injustices meted out by the provincial and federal governments with their region formerly known as Fata.

Led by social welfare minister Anwar Zeb Khan, they said their protest would continue until the province and the centre didn’t address their grievances regarding development funding and the rights of tribal districts.

The MPAs from seven tribal districts demanded ‘proper’ share in the annual development programme proposed for the next fiscal, action on the federal government’s promises for their region’s development, especially the annual release of Rs100 billion and provision of government jobs to the local youth.

The announcement of the session boycott came as the house continued debate on the 2022-23 budget for the third day with Deputy Speaker Mehmood Jan in the chair.

Warn if rights not granted to region, residents will demand separate province

Minister Zeb complained that he was part of the cabinet but even then, no one in the government or bureaucracy was ready to listen to him.

“As a minister, I visited the offices of the finance minister, additional chief secretary and communication and works secretary to seek funds for projects in his constituency, but to no avail. Ironically, the [provincial] government had started the construction of several roads in my Bajaur constituency in 2018 but work is still incomplete rendering the built structures in ruins,” he complained.

The minister said the estimated cost of those roads was Rs1.32 billion but the government had released only Rs0.4 billion in the outgoing financial year.

“I will sacrifice my ministry for the rights of the people of tribal areas. I and all other members from the region will continue with the boycott of the budget session until our genuine demands are met,” he said before walking out of the hall.

The other tribal lawmakers followed him shouting slogans.

Opposition MPA from tribal areas Naseer Khan said residents of the erstwhile Fata were part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, so no one could exclude them from the Sehat Card scheme providing free treatment programme to the people of the province.

“I warn the provincial and federal governments that if they don’t fulfil the promises they made for the development of tribal districts, the residents will launch efforts for a separate province for themselves,” he said.

Earlier, participating in the debate on the budget, ANP member Khushdil Khan said the province’s next budget would have a large deficit as the government had showed ‘exaggerated’ receipts in the documents.

He said there was no reality in the government’s claim of presenting a balanced budget.

Mr Khushdil criticised the government for block budgetary allocations, which, he said, will be utilised at the whims of the chief minister in violation of the high court’s orders issued in 2014.

He urged the government to curtail spending for ministers, advisers, parliamentary secretaries, bureaucrats and prosecution staff to reduce budget deficit.

The lawmaker said several official vehicles could be seen in the sprawling bungalows of the administrative secretaries but no one in the government asks them whether they are allowed so many vehicles or not,” he said.

Mian Nisar Gul of the opposition Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal said the people of his native Karak district still fetched water from far-off ponds as there were no tubewells and other sources of drinking water.

“The [KP] government has been receiving Rs 31 billion annually from the federal government as royalty on oil and gas produced in Karak area but its 10 per cent share in the total royalty has never been spent on its development,” he said.

The chair adjourned the session until Tuesday (today).

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2022