Jhagra-Miftah Meeting.

In order to ensure that the final stages of talks leading to the release of the IMF tranche are not derailed, federal Finance Minister Miftah Ismail will meet with KP's Finance Minister Taimur Khan Jhagra today (Monday) to resolve differences between the Centre and the province over outstanding issues. This meeting comes following a series of events over the past couple of days, with Mr. Jhagra sending a letter on Friday to his federal counterpart stating that his KP administration might find it difficult to run a provincial surplus this year in view of flood-related damages.

Earlier, the KP government had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) as part of a key IMF condition that provinces would provide a budget surplus this fiscal year. However, this was apparently agreed upon with the condition that the center would allay the concerns of the province. In his letter, Mr. Jhagra listed four key issues, including the resolution of budget allocations for erstwhile federally administered tribal areas (FATA), monthly transfers of Net Hydel Profits as per terms specified in an MoU signed between the federal and provincial governments in 2016, and the immediate revival of the National Finance...