PHC moved against non-payment of funds to merged districts

PESHAWAR: A former provincial minister on Tuesday moved the Peshawar High Court (PHC) against the non-payment of funds to the merged tribal districts.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader and former provincial minister for finance and health Taimur Saleem Jhagra filed the writ petition through his lawyer Ali Gohar Durrani Advocate.

The president, the federal government, secretary of finance, National Finance Commission, the Council of Economic Council, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief secretary and others were made respondents in the petition.

The petitioner requested the court to order the government to hold regular meetings of the National Finance Commission and the National Economic Council.

According to the petition, the government merged the former tribal areas into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa under the 25th Constitutional Amendment in 2018 on the recommendations of the Fata Reforms Committee.

As per the recommendations of the Fata Reforms Committee, the federal government was supposed to provide around Rs90 billion annually to the merged districts for 10 years so that the tribal people could be brought into the national mainstream by developing their areas. However, the petition argued that the federal government had not shouldered its responsibility and did not release the promised funds to the tribal districts.