PESHAWAR: Caretaker Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Muhammad Azam Khan here Thursday said that the provincial government is adhering to strict financial discipline, and through a number of measures under austerity policy, unnecessary expenditures have been drastically reduced whereas prudent and judicious and realistic use of available financial resources is also being ensured.
He added that as a result of the above-mentioned measures, the incumbent caretaker government has not yet taken any overdraft from banks. He said that due to huge recruitments during the previous tenures, the budget of salaries and pensions of the provincial departments and government universities has increased manifolds due to which the provincial government as well as the higher educational institutes are facing financial crunches as a major chunk of provincial government budget is spent on salaries and pension.
He was talking to the participants of the 25th National Security Workshop of National Defence University who called on him here on Thursday.
Major General Raza Aizad from National Defense University, Islamabad, Chief Secretary Nadeem Aslam Chaudhary, Additional Chief Secretaries Muhammad Abid Majeed, Syed Imtiaz Hussain Shah, and Secretary Finance Amir Sultan Tareen were also present on the occasion.
The chief minister said that due to decades-long instability in the region, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province especially the erstwhile tribal belt has been badly affected resulting in a law & order situation, poor economy, and slow-paced development, adding the newly merged tribal districts needed special attention of the government for their development and redressal of their decades long deprivations.
He maintained that commitments made by the federal government and the federating units with regard to the fast-track development of the Newly Merged Districts at the time of the merger had not yet been fulfilled. Azam Khan remarked that the province is not getting its due shares in various federal transfers including NFC, net hydel profit, and oil & gas royalty etc. due to which the provincial government is faced with a major challenge of financial crunches.
The participants were briefed about the overall security situation, administrative and financial affairs, and development portfolio of the province, and told that a crackdown is underway against all types of the illegal spectrum including smuggling, extortion, hundi-hawala, fake documentation, etc, and added that an effective coordination mechanism amongst civil administration, security forces, intelligence institutions, federal and provincial entities has been established for this purpose. Besides, the Counter Terrorism department has also been strengthened on modern lines in order to effectively deal with the issues of extortion and terrorism in the province.
It was informed that profiling of non-custom paid vehicles in the newly merged districts and Malakand Division is also in progress. The participants were told that law enforcement agencies have made significant achievements in the operation against terrorism and the illegal spectrum. Briefing about the development portfolio of the province, it was informed that the total development outlay of settled areas consists of 1505 development projects with a total cost of Rs. 1794 billion; similarly, the development portfolio of the NMDs consists of 686 development projects with an estimated cost of Rs.897 billion.
The participants were briefed that the province is mostly dependent on federal transfers for its revenues as 94% of its revenue comes from various federal receipts. It was said that with the merger of erstwhile FATA into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the population of the province has increased but the share of the province in the NFC Award has not been increased accordingly which needs to be revised to enable the province to get its due share; and added that as per the existing population after merger of erstwhile FATA, the NFC shares of the province comes to 19.6% of the total but the province is getting only 14.6%.
The participants were apprised that the provincial government was taking concrete measures under a well-devised strategy to increase its revenue by exploiting its potential in various sectors including hydro-power, agriculture, mines & minerals, and tourism adding that health and education sectors have been the top priority of the provincial government and significant financial resources are being spent on these sectors.