LAHORE: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar said on Sunday that the country had been saved from insolvency and now the entire government was focused on ensuring stability and growth.
Addressing a press conference here, he said that everyone recognizes that the economy of the country is becoming stable and even the founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has admitted this. He said inflation has come down from 32 percent to 4 percent. “It is not the responsibility of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government apart from appointing price control magistrates at the tehsil and union council levels to set up price control committees,” he asked.
Compared to last year the prices of basic items have come down, the price of petrol has come down but why things have not improved in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. All micro-economic indicators were improving in the country under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, he added.
He said all the political parties had their own programs on which they ran in the general elections.
He said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf had been in government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for almost 11 years and added that during the last ten months it had witnessed bad governance and corruption in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
While sharing a white paper on the performance of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, he highlighted financial corruption along with financial irregularities. Tarar said that the Lahore Metro Bus has been started to facilitate
common man but the initiative was called “Jangla Bus” by a certain person and later the model was replicated in Peshawar. He said some people had a habit of taking turns.
The information minister said financial irregularities in the KP government were estimated at Rs 152 billion. Giving details of the financial losses, Attaullah Tarar said there were fraudulent payments worth Rs 130 million;
Rs 84 billion was estimated as misclassified expenditure and suspicious disbursement was calculated as Rs. 510 million.
He said the financial discrepancy was due to frivolity and zero focus on governance. The federal minister said the PTI provincial government was hatching a conspiracy and ranting and raving. Regarding the debt crisis, the minister said that the total debt burden of KP was Rs. 725 billion and added that it would rise to Rs 2,555 billion by 2030 if not addressed. He said, “The annual debit service costs Rs 355 billion, which is equivalent to the provincial development budget.”
He said that the KP government has not done anything for more than one decade, no dam has been built and not a single unit of electricity has been produced in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
What is the fault of the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and why was the aid not transferred to the people, asked Attaullah Tarar.
He said the amendment to the KP Universities Act 2024 centralized control under the Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, undermining academic autonomy and facilitating political appointments. The information minister said the teachers were protesting on the roads in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said 50 illegal meetings were held at the Nowshera Medical Complex despite anti-corruption notices, adding that Rs 2.68 billion was embezzled in the KITE project as part of tourism mismanagement.
Regarding the police reforms, the minister said that if the reforms are implemented, why is the law and order situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa so bad. He said Rescue-1122 vehicles were used in PTI political protests, unfortunately they diverted emergency resources. Cost inflation in DI Khan and Bannu projects rose from Rs. 100 crore to Rs 2.6 billion just because of misappropriation of funds, he alleged.
He further said that unfortunately KP has witnessed increasing violence especially in Kurram district. He said that instead of targeting the people of Kurram, the PTI government was concentrating on attacking the federation. KP had nothing to say about the fake driving license scandal, timber mafia scandal, bus rapid transit corruption and its poor governance. He said that the biggest problem of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa is its Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, his party and leadership.
Answering a question, he said that PPP wants to make Sindh a modern province. He said the government is focusing on the country’s growth and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will soon talk about the economic agenda.
He said: “The dialogue is meant to ensure political stability.”
