PESHAWAR: Caretaker Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mohammad Azam Khan on Wednesday directed cabinet members and administrative secretaries to identify corruption cases in their respective departments and initiate appropriate actions against those involved in corrupt practices.

During a cabinet meeting here, the chief minister also said the financial crisis and law and order were the province’s two major challenges.

He said as its top priority, his government would make all-out efforts to improve the law and order situation.

Mr Khan said the province was financially depending on the federal government as more than 90 per cent of its revenue came from various federal receipts,

Declares financial crisis, law and order major challenges

He said as per the current population, the province’s share in National Finance Commission Award was 19 per cent but it received 14.6 per cent share only, read a statement issued from the chief minister’s secretariat.

Mr Khan said the province’s population increased after Fata was merged with it.

“At the time of the [Fata-KP] merger, it was committed by all federating entities that three per cent of their NFC share would be provided for the newly merged districts and it was also pledged that Rs100 billion would be provided to KP every year for the accelerated development of the newly merged districts,” he said.

The chief minister said during the last five years, out of Rs500 billion, only Rs103 billion had been provided to the province.

He said as per the AGN Qazi formula, Rs1.2 trillion funds had yet to be paid to the province by the centre.

“In the given scenario, fast-track uplift of the newly-merged tribal districts has become difficult,” he said.

Mr Khan told the cabinet that he had already taken up all issues with the previous federal government for resolution. He asked the finance minister to follow up on those issues with the federal government.

Mr Khan said the role and responsibilities of caretaker setup were clear in relevant provisions of the Constitution and Election Commission of Pakistan Act 2017.

He said the caretaker government would restrict itself to its Constitutional and legal roles as it was purely apolitical, impartial and would perform its duties without any political affiliation.

The meeting’s agenda included approval of supplementary funding for the Forensic Science Laboratory in the provincial capital and revision of PC-I for the Janikhel Bannu police station, according to the official statement, which read, “Those measures are anticipated to contribute significantly to counter-terrorism efforts and the maintenance of law and order in KP.”

The cabinet also approved the nomination of Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim Khan as an administrative judge for anti-terrorism courts, a recommendation put forth by the Chief Justice of the Peshawar High Court and decided to forward PC-Is for the Women and Children Liaquat Memorial Teaching Hospital in Kohat and National Programme for Improvement of Water Courses in Pakistan Phase-II projects to the Provincial Development Working Party for reassessment.

It also formed a sub-committee led by the senior member of the board of revenue to “address” service rules pertaining to the provincial ombudsman office’s employees.

The cabinet approved the recommendations of a committee constituted to address the concerns of the Police Public School’s teachers.

Published in Dawn, August 31st, 2023