DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Chief Minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur has asked the federal government to pay electricity dues worth ‘Rs1,510 billion’ to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Addressing a press conference here, he said the provincial government was going to present the next budget soon and the allocations of funds would be made according to priorities.

Mr Gandapur said Wapda should not call the people of his province ‘thieves’ as they were already affected by terrorism, power loadshedding, and were also deprived of their due rights. He accused Wapda itself of being involved in electricity theft.

Mr Gandapur said KP’s electricity dues worth Rs1,510 billion were the right of the people of his province. “The people of KP are subjected to brutal and unannounced loadshedding of gas and electricity, while we are also labelled as electricity thieves, which is unacceptable at any cost,” he said, adding they should be given their due rights, or ‘he would snatch the rights of his people in his own way’.

He said rights were not obtained by posting on social media ‘but we have to take our rights by force’. He said health facilities had been extended to those regions hitherto deprived of them.

The chief minister said his government would build water reservoirs to overcome food crisis in KP. He said he didn’t have any personal grudges with any department or officer, but they had to rectify their wrongdoings, otherwise he would send them home without any pension benefits.

Mr Gandapur said his government’s first priority was to improve the law and order situation in the province.

He said efforts were being made to improve the condition of government-run hospitals.

He said his other priorities included resolving the energy crisis by pushing the federal government to pay outstanding dues of the province.

The chief minister painted a vision of a transformed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa through pursuing sustainable development.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2024