Surrender of fund by governor: A publicity stunt or silent protest against own govt?

PESHAWAR: The Governor’s House, which used to be the busiest place for the tribal elders’ meetings, jirgas, political, social and development activities, has been confined to just occasional oath-taking of ministers, signing of bills passed by the provincial assembly or issuing the notifications for convening or proroguing the assembly sessions.

Before the merger of the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), the KP governor had the powers of carrying out uplift projects and looking after the affairs of the tribal region for which a full-fledged Fata Secretariat was working under him.

But after the merger of tribal districts into the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Governor’s House role has been limited, on the one hand, while Governor Shah Farman himself has opted to be a silent spectator even to the mode of governance of his own party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), on the other. He surrendered even the little powers and role he could play in the development of so far neglected tribal areas.

The governor’s recent surrender of Rs96 million fund meant for utilisation in the merged tribal districts manifests the fact the Governor’s House even lacks the capacity to use such a meagre amount for the betterment of the tribal people.

The governor in the official handout issued to media organizations on Friday had said that he had surrendered and deposited an amount of Rs96,021,222 fund in the provincial kitty which were available at his disposal for utilisation in erstwhile Fata.

The over Rs90 million funds were accumulated in the governor’s designated Newly Merged Districts (NMD) account during the three fiscal years — 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22.

He said after the Fata merger into KP, now it was the domain of the provincial government to utilise these funds for the development and prosperity of tribal districts.

But the question arises whether the provincial set-up was not aware of its domain while giving the funds to the governor or Shah Farman had expressed his anger over allocating him such a meagre amount out of Rs100 billion development budget for the merged districts when he surrendered the fund.

It could be either a publicity stunt or a silent protest against his own party government for allocating just Rs96 million, which in terms of development fund seven merged districts and six ex-Frontier Regions, and that too for three years, is just peanuts.

Avoiding executing development schemes or visiting the tribal districts could be a reason as Governor Shah Farman’s natural likeness for loneliness and media shyness can be judged from the fact that he even did not invite media for his oath-taking ceremony.

During the last three years, he faced the media only once when reporters were called to the Governor’s House to clarify that the governor had no differences with Chief Minister Mahmood Khan. The chief minister and the governor were present on the occasion in September 2018 and both had claimed to enjoy better working relationships. They had rejected the reports of the behind-the-scenes role of the then advisor to the prime minister on information, Iftikhar Durrani.

The PTI leadership promise of turning the Governor’s Houses into either educational institutions, museums or public parks, is yet to be honoured and its opening to the public has proved to be a mere slogan.