PESHAWAR: After the conclusion of a tour of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi will visit Sindh and Balochistan as part of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s street movement, said his special assistant for information Shafi Jan on Monday.
In a media briefing after a cabinet meeting here, Mr Jan said that the PTI delegation comprising provincial ministers and members of the assembly and led by CM Afridi, which just concluded a visit to Punjab province to launch a street movement, achieved its objectives as restrictions prevented people from freely moving with PTI flags on Lahore roads.
He said the love of Punjab residents for the PTI was evident from the warm welcome accorded to the delegation on arrival in Lahore.
The chief minister’s aide regretted that the chief minister was denied permission to visit the houses of some PTI workers in the cantonment area.
CM tells cabinet that funding denial by Centre
has badly hit uplift projects in tribal districts
He wondered if a chief minister’s entry to the cantonment area could be stopped, how a mob entered the Lahore corps commander’s house on May 9, 2023.
Mr Jan condemned the Punjab government’s conduct towards the KP chief minister during the Punjab visit.
“Curfew was imposed; roads were blocked;all those who invited the PTI team to their areas, were arrested and even members of the Christian community, who were celebrating Christmas, were taken into custody and bundled into a prison van before being taken away,” he said.
Mr Jan accused Punjab Minister for Information Azma Bukhari of allowing nine YouTubers entry to the Punjab Assembly and refusing the same to “genuine” journalists.
He said that the chief minister had ordered an inquiry into the “extra-judicial“ killing of two Swat residents in Gujranwala.
To a question, the aide to the CM said the provincial government wouldn’t allow new military operations in the province.
Earlier in the cabinet meeting, CM Afridi complained about the denial of the Accelerated Implementation Programme‘s funds to the Centre by the Centre, saying the long delays in the release of funding have severely hit work on development projects in the merged tribal districts, according to an official statement.
The chief minister said the federal government owed Rs4.758 trillion to KP and that the finance ministry tried to hold a media trial of the provincial government on the issue of fiscal releases through false propaganda.
He demanded that the federal government disclose complete details of funds released to all provinces and present a comparison of KP’s dues with those of other provinces and directed all departments to write formal letters regarding the outstanding payments and obtain written responses.
The cabinet approved the establishment of Takaful companies in the province in line with Islamic principles, according to Mr Jan.
He said the KP General Takaful Company and KP Family Takaful Company would be established, with Rs2 billion approved for the former and Rs3bn for the latter.
According to him, the General Takaful Company will cover health and other risk-related matters, while the Family Takaful Company will provide financial support to families in the event of the death of the family head.
The cabinet approved a supplementary grant of Rs3.825 ttrillion for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Safe Cities Projects for Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu, Lakki Marwat and Waziristan districts.
The aide to the CM said significant progress had been made on the Peshawar Safe City project, with 80 per cent of work completed on “some targets“ and over 50pc on others, while work on safe city projects in other cities was under way.
He said recommendations of the cabinet committee regarding the merger of the posts of risaldar and dafadar in the former Fata were laid before the meeting, which granted “nomenclature approval” to 16 remaining posts. These posts will be merged with police after the fulfillment of rules and regulations, according to him.
The cabinet approved the framework as per the prevailing conditions for maintaining the quota system for students from the erstwhile Fata in medical and other educational institutions on a merit basis after dividing South Waziristan into two districts.
It also granted approval to the establishment of a KP cell for the National Finance Commission in the Small Industrial Development Board Plaza in Islamabad, reconstitution of the KP Trade Testing Board, and Rs199 million funding for security and other development needs around the Rashakai CPEC Economic Zone.
The cabinet accepted the proposal to grant Rs168 million to the KP Education Foundation besides budget estimates of the KP Housing Authority and the purchase of four Rs49 million vehicles for the Mansehra Gravity Water Supply Scheme.
It approved financial assistance to compensate owners of rickshaws, petrol pumps, shops, vehicles, flour mills and factories for losses incurred during the 2025 flashfloods.
The cabinet allowed authorities to launch a three-year Ehsaas Education Internship Programme with an initial allocation of Rs207 million for the current year to provide 850 talented youth with internship opportunities in schools every year.
It also approved new mechanisms for contracts for five outsourced hospitals, a special compensation package for those martyred and injured in the Pakistan-India war and an Rs1 million civilian victim compensation package for Shaheed Noor Rahman, son of former member of the United Ulema Board, Shaheed Mufti Fazl Rahman.
Amendments to the Rules of Business of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Public Service Commission were also approved during the cabinet meeting, according to the statement.
