PESHAWAR: Speaker of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Babar Saleem Swati on Thursday announced that the approval of the next provincial budget was linked to the consent of incarcerated PTI founder and former prime minister Imran Khan.

“Chief Minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur will meet Imran Khan [in jail]. He will approve and we will approve the budget on June 24. If he does not approve, we will follow the directions,” Mr Swati told the assembly’s budget session here.

Member of the opposition PML-N Sobia Shahid said the treasury benches talked about austerity measures in the provincial budget but the government unreasonably revised funding for the Chief Minister’s Secretariat fromRs30.5 million in the outgoing year toRs110 million in the next fiscal.

She said that the province’s growth rate never exceeded 2.8 during the PTI’s 12 years in power.

The lawmaker said the government’s non-development expenditure made up 18 per cent of total spending, while development expenditure was just 12 per cent.

Opposition flays PTI govt over low uplift spending, growing debt

She also complained that the province’s debt was Rs150 billion before 2013 but it surged to Rs800 billion between 2013 and 2025.

Ms Shahid noted that Israel had progressed due to a focus on the development of the elementary and secondary education sector.

“Israel, with a population of nine million, is fighting a war against Iran, with a population of 120 million, due to advancements in science and technology,” she said.

The opposition MPA regretted that the KP government utilised just 14 per cent of the total Rs326 billion budgetary allocations for elementary and education in the financial year 2024-25, while the rest of the amount lapsed.

Education minister FaisalTarakai told the house that his party, PTI, came to power in the province for the third time on the basis of its good performance.

He claimed that around 92 per cent of the budget went to the payment of salaries and pensions, while 89 per cent of the rest was spent on the education sector and nothing from it lapsed.

The minister said that in 2013, around 50 per cent of the children in the province were out of school, but the percentage dropped to 30 in 2025.

Special assistant to the chief minister on communication and works Sohail Afridi said the next budget would be passed only after it was approved by PTI founder Imran Khan. He said his department got 83 per cent of the funds for ongoing projects.

Mr Afridi said that his department was being digitised for an immediate response to damaged roads.

Treasury member Fazal Ilahi praised Iran for responding to Israeli aggression against Palestinians and said the federal government should set up medical camps for the injured Iranians on the border if it’s not possible inside Iran.

He said KP produced electricity but still its people were unjustifiably subjected to power outages and unannounced loadshedding.

“The treasury and the opposition should join hands to plead the province’s case for rights with the centre,” he said.

Mr Ilahi warned if former prime minister Imran Khan was not released from prison, people would close operations of Tarbela and Warsak dams, work on gas pipeline from Karak to Punjab, and mining in the merged tribal districts.

PTI-Parliamentarians member Arbab Mohammad Wasim raised questions about the PTI’s claim of granting relief to people in the next budget.

He urged the provincial government to sit down with the federal government for the sake of the province’s rights, saying dialogue is the only way to resolve issues.

Lawmaker of the opposition PPP Nelofar Babar also questioned the “budgetary relief” for the salaried class, pensioners and women and complained about the dilapidated condition of the Peshawar-Nowshera Road and Chitral Road.

In response, MPA Akbar Ayub said that both the roads were managed by the National Highway Authority, so the PPP lawmaker should contact PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and the federal government about corrective measures.

Treasury MPA Taj Mohammad Khan accused the federal government of mistreating KP.

He said the centre made promises with KP by merging tribal areas with it, but didn’t clear dues for the region’s development. Mr Khan said despite facing financial challenges, the provincial government managed to present a tax-free and people-friendly budget.

Treasury MPA Fatehul Mulk Ali Nasir thanked the provincial government for not imposing any tax in the merged tribal districts in the budget 2025-26.

He said the provincial government had allocated unprecedented development funds for Chitral district.

Mr Nasir called for the inclusion of upgradation of Chitral’s district headquarters hospital in the annual developmental programme, saying the health facility caters to patients from upper Chiral and even neighbouring Afghanistan.

The chair later put off the sitting till 2pm today (Friday)due to a lack of quorum.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2025