PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Thursday decided to formally communicate its concerns to the federal government through an official letter regarding taxation in ex-Fata and Malakand Division besides issues related to electric supply and distribution.

The decision was taken during a meeting between KP Chief Minister Sohail Afridi and a delegation of PTI parliamentarians and senior leaders at the Chief Minister’s House here, according to a statement issued by the Chief Minister’s Secretariat.

It added that the meeting reviewed the federal government’s decision to impose taxes in the merged districts and ex-Pata, as well as the issues of prolonged unscheduled electricity loadshedding, low voltage and other related matters affecting the province.

The participants expressed serious concern over the federal government’s decision and decided to pursue these matters vigorously with the federal government through all relevant institutional and constitutional forums.

CM insists federal govt trying to ‘further marginalise’ merged districts

The CM ordered the convening of a joint meeting of Pesco, Tesco and Hesco to address the persistent problems of unscheduled loadshedding and low voltage affecting consumers across the province and said that the federal government was making attempts to further marginalise merged tribal districts.

“After withholding the merged districts’ due share under the National Finance Commission Award, the Accelerated Implementation Programme and current budgetary allocations, the federal government had now proceeded with the imposition of additional taxes,” he said.

Mr Afridi noted that a clear commitment had been made that no taxes would be imposed on the merged districts until they had achieved development parity with the rest of the country.

He said that the recent taxation measures were a deviation from that commitment.

The participants maintained that the imposition of taxes in the merged districts was unjust and unacceptable to the residents.

They also complained that despite being a largest producer of electricity, KP continued to experience prolonged power outages. The participants added that persistent unscheduled loadshedding, coupled with low voltage during the ongoing summer season, had significantly increased people’s hardships.

The chief minister said that the provincial government would continue to take all necessary measures to safeguard the constitutional, economic and developmental rights of the people of the province, particularly those of the merged districts.

The delegation comprised PTI parliamentarians Asad Qaiser, Junaid Akbar, Atif Khan, Shehram Khan Tarakai, Shandana Gulzar, Saleemur Rehman, Sahibzada Sibghatullah, Mehboobur Rehman, Anwar Taj, Dr Amjad and Sajid Mohmand as well as senior party leaders Shaukat Yousafzai and Arbab Jehandad.

The meeting took place on the heels of a joint news conference by senior PTI leadership in the provincial capital where they accused the federal government of violating the province’s Constitutional rights and withholding its due share in national resources.

Addressing the news conference, former National Assembly speaker Asad Qaisar and PTI provincial president Junaid Akbar accused the federal government of withholding over Rs430 billion of KP’s share under the heads of net hydel profit, National Finance Commission and gas royalties.

They also alleged that the federal government had failed to fulfil its promises for the development of the merged districts.

The PTI leader also complained that the Centre had allocated just 3.8 per cent of the federal Public Sector Development Programme for KP.

Published in Dawn, July 3rd, 2026