PESHAWAR: Muzammil Aslam, adviser to the chief minister on finance, on Thursday said like other provinces, KP depended on the federal government’s financial performance for its budget-making.
“The better the Centre performs in strengthening the economy and collecting revenue, the more the provinces benefit,” Mr Aslam told the provincial assembly, which met with Speaker Babar Saleem Swati in the chair.
He, however, said that experts feared that the federal government won’t be able to achieve its revenue target for the current fiscal due to the global crisis caused by the Iran war.
Mr Aslam said the government’s austerity measures would affect tax collection.
Province’s funding share likely to be cut by around Rs90 billion, Muzammil Aslam tells PA
“Revenue is likely to be at least Rs1 trillion short of the Rs14 trillion target, hitting all provinces,” he said.
The CM aide said that KP’s funding share was likely to be cut by around Rs90 billion, a huge amount for the province.
He, however, said that the province’s financial position was better than when the PTI government was formed in 2024.
Mr Aslam said Fata was merged with KP in 2018 in line with a federal government decision, so the province’s share in the NFC Award should have gone up from 14.62 per cent, but it didn’t happen.
Earlier, the chair observed that it was a “pre-budget” session, held for the first time in the history of the province.
“This pre-budget discussion offers an opportunity to lawmakers to give suggestions to the government for investment in public interest,” he said.
Treasury members hailed the discussion. However, the opposition asked them to share details of the budgetary “objectives and targets achieved” during the current fiscal.
Mr Aslam said suggestions of the lawmakers would be noted down, with those applicable to be included in the next budget.
Member of the opposition PPP Ahmad Karim Kundi said that the provincial government had been talking about the NFC Award but questioned why the Provincial Finance Commission hadn’t not been formed yet.
He added that the provincial government spoke much about the NFC Award but never discussed the PFC.
Mr Kundi questioned the federal government’s Rs2 trillion petroleum development levy and complained that the federal excise duty on oil was not being paid to KP.
Treasury MPA Qasim Ali Shah said that the next budget should focus on the development of education and health sectors.
Member of the opposition PML-N Sardar Shah Jahan Yousaf wondered whether the targets set by the provincial government for the current year had been achieved.
He also asked treasury benches if the next budget would be surplus and tax-free or simply the ongoing development projects would be shown in it.
The member complained about the “poor” condition of hospitals and roads across the province and said that the government had failed to reconstruct schools and other infrastructure destroyed in the Hazara region during the 2005 earthquake.
He complained that over five million children in the province were out of school.
Mr Yousaf said that the opposition benches would fight for the province’s right under the NFC Award.
He, however, questioned if local governments were issued funds by the provincial government.
“It’s the responsibility of the local government representatives to resolve issues on grassroots level but the provincial government didn’t issue development funds to them,” he said.
Mr Yousaf also wondered how much funds were released for merged tribal districts during the last PTI-led federal government.
Treasury MPA Nazir Abbasi said that the infrastructure, especially schools, could not be reconstructed as the funds were diverted by the PPP-led federal government to other projects.
The house passed the KP Public Financial Management Amendment Bill, 2026, which was moved by minister for law Aftab Alam Afridi. The approval came after Mr Kundi withdrew all his three proposed amendments.
Mr Aslam thanked Mr Kundi for listening to the treasury benches with patience and said both treasury and opposition benches would jointly move ahead.
The house also prayed for Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and former speaker of the Iranian parliament Ali Larijani, who were killed in US-Israeli air strikes, as well as Peshawar-based journalist Aneela Shaheen.
The chair later adjourned the sitting until Monday afternoon.
Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2026