PESHAWAR: Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) provincial Chairman Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao said on Wednesday that the KP government had been unable to protect the rights of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Addressing a convention of party workers in Elay village in Buner district, he said the KP government should press the federal government to convene the meeting of the National Finance Commission (NFC) in a bid to increase the share of the province in the award.
He added that the federal government should convene the NFC Award meeting at the earliest, urging the KP government to swing into action and get the share of the province raised in the distribution of resources.
“On the one hand, the federal government is using delaying tactics to finalise the 9th NFC Award but on the other hand the provincial government also seems to be least bothered to secure the rights of the province,” he pointed out, adding that it would affect the development of KP due to the non-provision of adequate funds.
He said the federal government should have timely transferred surplus funds to the province so that development and uplift schemes could have been executed in KP. Sikandar Sherpao said the government had overlooked the far-flung and underdeveloped areas of the province.
He recalled that the government had promised to establish a marble city, promote tourism and undertake CPEC related projects in Buner, but the rulers could not honour a single pledge, which showed they were not sincere to work for the wellbeing of the people.
About the nominal cut in the POL prices, he said the government was receiving petroleum products from Saudi Arabia on deferred payments, but it did not pass on the benefits to the common people.
“The recent decrease in the POL prices is a joke with the people. The government is adding insult to injury though such acts,” he remarked. He said that the government over the last 15 months did not provide any relief to the people and the have-nots were struggling to arrange a two-time meal for their children in the face of skyrocketing inflation. “The backbreaking inflation coupled with joblessness have made life miserable for the commoners,” he maintained. Sikandar Sherpao said that the rulers had lost the trust of the people as they did not have the competence to steer the country out the prevailing morass. “The government is following the diktats of the International Monetary Fund and the recent increase in the power tariff is a case in point,” he argued.