PESHAWAR: Criticising the federal and provincial governments for neglecting Malakand Division in the recent budgets, Jamaat-e-Islami Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (North) president and former senior minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Inayatullah Khan on Tuesday announced to hold an All-Parties Conference on June 25 to decide the future course of action.
Addressing a press conference here, he warned that the KP government’s attempt to collect taxes from Malakand Division was a violation of the previously agreed tax exemption. He was accompanied by president of Tehreek Huqooq-i- Malakand and former KP Finance Minister Shah Raz Khan, ex-MNA from Upper Dir, Sahibzada Tariqullah, former District Nazim Upper Dir Sahibzada Fasihullah and Tehsil Chairman Upper Dir Rafeeullah Khan.
The JI leader said that the provincial government was breaching the tax exemption agreement by imposing taxes in Malakand, while the federal government has ignored the salaried class in its budget and awarded big relief to industrialists and feudal elites. He termed the imposition of an 18 percent sales tax on solar panels oppression, which he said, was a bid to force the people to have the expensive electricity.
Inayatullah Khan said that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Authority (KPRA) had already collected Rs 200 million in taxes from Malakand, despite its exempt status. Jamaat-e-Islami, he emphasised, would not leave the people of the region alone and would unite all segments of society on one platform to resist these injustices.
Criticising Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, Inayatullah called his claims of offering loans to the federal government a ‘bundle of lies.’ He ridiculed the provincial government’s claim of generating a revenue of Rs 129 billion internally. “Will such a huge amount be collected through illegal taxation from the people of Malakand,” he questioned.
The former minister described the KP budget as a deficit one disguised as surplus. He said that although Rs 45 billion had been allocated for local governments this year, no funds have been released to elected local representatives during the past three years.
He also accused the chief minister of allocating Rs 34 billion worth of development projects for his home district, Dera Ismail Khan, while ignoring the merged tribal districts completely. “Every year, funds are earmarked for the merged districts in the budget but never released and utilized,” he said.
Speaking on the occasion, Shah Raz Khan said that all political parties would be brought together on a single platform to defend the rights of Malakand. He said that withdrawal of tax exemption for Malakand was a grave injustice to the poor people of the region.
He said that the provincial government has badly failed to deliver for the well-being of the people of the province despite being in power for 13 long years. He said that the people of Malakand division would give a strong and united response to the injustices being done to them.
