KP CM pens letter to PM Shehbaz over Centre’s ‘persistent failure to release constitutionally guaranteed’ funds
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi on Monday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif over what he dubbed the Centre’s “persistent failure” to release “constitutionally guaranteed” funds, demanding the “full and unconditional” release of all outstanding federal dues.
Since becoming the provincial chief executive in October last year, Afridi has repeatedly accused the federal government of stalling the release of funds allocated for KP, particularly those committed for the merged districts under the National Finance Commission (NFC).
In a fresh call for the release of funds, the KP CM said: “I am compelled to place on record the deep and mounting concern of the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa regarding the persistent failure to release constitutionally guaranteed federal transfers.”
This failure, he added, “has now translated into an acute fiscal and governance crisis for the province”.
Afridi underscored that KP’s budget for fiscal year 2025-26 was framed and approved “strictly on the basis of clear constitutional entitlements”, including net hydel profit, oil and gas royalties, post-merger NFC shares, and regular monthly releases under the NFC.
“These were not discretionary assumptions but binding fiscal obligations,” he emphasised, adding that “contrary to these commitments, actual releases have consistently fallen short of budgeted levels”.
Moreover, “of even greater concern is the withholding of routine monthly NFC transfers, a practice that finds no sanction in the Constitution and strikes at the core of cooperative federalism”, he said.
The KP CM maintained that his province was entitled to receive Rs658.4 billion under the NFC, but it had received just Rs604bn so far, leading to a shortfall of Rs54.4bn.
“This is not an accounting variance; it represents a material breach that has directly impaired cash management, disrupted budget execution, and constrained service delivery across critical sectors of governance,” he asserted.
More to follow
