KP to challenge Centre's committee on tribal areas' development funds.

ISLAMABAD -- Khyber PakhAtunAAkhwa Finance Minister Taimur Khan Jhagra on Sunday lashed out at the federal government for empowering the Planning Commission deputy chairman to disburse funds allocated for the tribal districts.

He was responding to a federal government notification to form a committee, headed by the Planning Commission deputy chairman to disburse Rs 55 billion in development funds for tribal districts.

Addressing a press conference along with KP Higher Education Minister Kamran Khan Bangash in Islamabad, Mr Jhagra called the move unconstitutional.

He announced to challenge the notification in the court and said it was a setback to the efforts to develop tribal districts.

'We will challenge the notification in the court this week as it has made the National Finance Commission ineffective,' Mr Jhagra said.

He said the governor was the constitutional head of a province but with his addition to the committee, he has been made subordinate to a bureaucrat.

Jhagra calls federal govt's notification 'unconstitutional'

This will not make a difference to the governor, who he said was appointed by the 'imported government,' but for the people of KP, this will be akin to disrespecting their elected representatives.

'The notification was issued despite the passage of the budget by the provincial assembly,' Mr Jhagra said, adding this was an insult to the people of KP.

He said the KP government has serious concerns over the security issues in tribal districts.

'However, the imported government has stopped all development work and funds are not being released to pay salaries to government employees in the region,' the KP finance minister claimed.

Currently, the provincial government was paying all the expenditures in the tribal districts, he claimed.

Mr Jhagra claimed that for the first time in history, the previous Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government had started working to uplift tribal districts and focused on the health, education and welfare of the people.

He said that in 2018, then prime minister Imran Khan had increased...