PESHAWAR: The lawmakers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly here on Sunday criticised provincial government for announcing new developmental schemes in the budget for the fiscal year 2026-27 but leaving the last year’s uplift projects incomplete.

They also criticised government for allocating a meagre amount for several schemes, saying the schemes would never be completed during the fiscal year 2026-27 and would not help to resolve the issues of the residents of the province.

The lawmakers also criticised federal government for what they called mistreating KP by refusing to pay attention to it for the reason that the residents of the province voted for PTI for the third consecutive term.

Talking during the budget session, held with Speaker Babar Saleem Swati in the chair, the leader of the opposition in the provincial assembly, Dr Ibadullah, appreciated Pakistan’s role in mediating between Iran and the United States and lauded political and military leadership for defusing the situation.

Opposition leader says development budget less than outgoing fiscal year

He claimed that the budget for the fiscal year 2026-27 was a total fraud which he would prove from the statistics shared by the provincial government.

He stated that developmental budget for the fiscal year 2025-27 was lesser than that for the fiscal year 2025-26 since Rs600 billion was allocated for uplift schemes in 2025-26 while that for the next fiscal year was around Rs524 billion.

He said that the developmental budget would drop down once, Rs109 billion, as committed during the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting was detected.

He stated that the total debt against KP in 2013 was Rs150 billion and that too for 66 years [1947-2013]. The debt went up during PTI governments and reached Rs951 billion in the fiscal year 2026-27, he added.

Dr Ibad said that provincial government should come up with long-term planning as tourism, energy sector, agriculture and mines and mineral sectors could generate revenue. “This province can pay even the country’s debt if mines and minerals sector is properly worked upon,” he claimed.

He said that Rs2.4 trillion was required for completion of previous schemes but the provincial government reflected more than 1,200 new schemes in the budget.

Former chief minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur, who also criticised the government, said that only 5 per cent of the total budget was allocated for elementary, higher education and information technology, 0.06 per cent for mines and minerals and 1.3 per cent for tourism while only 5.5 per cent of the total budget was allocated for livestock, fisheries and water management.

He requested all the political parties to join hands and change the system. He said that raise in salaries should be enhanced from 7 per cent to 10 per cent and previous schemes should be completed.

ANP’s Mohammad Nisar Baaz stated that 50 per cent of the federal budget would be paid back to International Monetary Fund and World Bank in debts, Rs3,000 billion spent on defence while peanuts would be left for welfare of people during the fiscal year 2026-27.

He said that the province’s total developmental budget was Rs524 billion while Rs2,500 billion was required for the new 2,800 developmental schemes highlighted in the budget for the fiscal year 2026-27.

The lawmaker, who belongs to Bajaur district, said that both, federal and provincial governments, disowned by merged districts. He added that merged districts had been promised 3 per cent of the divisible pool which was yet to be paid.

MPA Ali Hadi stated that opposition lawmakers were being neglected. He added that neglecting the opposition lawmakers were violation of law.

Minister for Law Aftab Alam Afridi said that leader of opposition should have talked about the way, the federal government was treating the province.

He stated that the interim government, which he called government of the opposition parties, went beyond its mandate.

The province was left in a situation that the third PTI government faced immense issues for seven months but finally managed to overcome the financial crisis, he added.

“The province is moving ahead without imposing any new tax and for the first time, despite inflation which the federal government is responsible for, no government employee has protested against the budget,” he said. He stated that the allocations, meant for KP, went to other provinces. The federal government had no right to demand funds from provincial government, he added.

The minister said that allocation of funds was right of the people, who voted for their candidates. The sitting was later adjourned till 2pm today (Monday).

Published in Dawn, June 22nd, 2026