Peshawar: Awami National Party (ANP) secretary for foreign affairs Sardar Hussain Babak on Tuesday alleged that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had remained trapped in a quagmire of problems for the past 13 years due to incompetent governance, rampant corruption and misuse of public resources.
In a statement, he alleged that the provincial treasury had been treated as a personal property by the PTI rulers, while government machinery and public resources were being used indiscriminately for political purposes.
Babak claimed that provincial and district departments were being forced to make payments for political objectives, alleging that a culture of corruption had permeated the province and that its resources were being plundered.
He claimed that the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had never witnessed a government as corrupt as the present one in the province’s history.
He also questioned the role of accountability institutions, alleging that they were merely watching the alleged misuse of public resources and corruption as silent spectators.
The ANP leader urged the rulers to show restraint and have mercy on a province already facing serious law-and-order challenges, saying that the people could not afford further political instability and administrative failure.
He alleged that mismanagement had reached its peak and provincial departments had been badly damaged, adversely affecting the delivery of public services to citizens.
Babak demanded accountability of those who had been ruling the province for the last 13 years and called for recovery of allegedly looted public money and its deposit into the national exchequer.
He questioned the financial status of the ruling political leadership when it came to power 13 years ago and asked what changes had occurred in their financial positions by 2026.
‘An account of this must be presented before the people,’ he demanded.
Babak said millions of people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had the right to know how public money was being spent and demanded that every penny allegedly looted from the provincial exchequer be accounted for through a transparent and impartial process.
He stressed that accountability should be applied without discrimination and that those responsible for corruption, misuse of authority and mismanagement should be held answerable under the law.
He said people of southern districts of Khyber Pakthunkhwa has kept distance of CM Afridi long march and rejected his politics of agitation.Babak said ANP was the only party that coild take the province out of existing challenges and address people problems.