Monitoring Desk: During the year 2024, the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) was under the grip of lawlessness, terrorism, tribal feuds, and the collapse of its administrative structure.
Kurram district events are glaring examples of the law and order situation; that is the foremost priority of any province under the 18th Constitutional Amendment is the least priority of the KP government. In Kurram, at least 124 people have been killed and 178 injured in tribal clashes and due to the government’s negligence, shortage of food and medicines has made the life of the people more difficult under unbearable winter. When sectarian-cum land dispute in Kurram district remerged, the provincial government was too busy arranging protests and marches towards the capital city of Islamabad. The provincial government had been more interested in how to invade the federal capital of Pakistan instead of focusing administrative resources to mitigate the unbearable problems of the public in the Kurram district. The law and order situation had been alarming in KP and 383 personnel of security forces were martyred in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during January 2024-December, indicating the deteriorating law and order situation in the province.
Strangely, instead of spending more on law and order and policing, provincial government administrative decisions demoralize the police force. The Police Act 2017, which was designed to free the police from political interference, has been rendered ineffective by recent amendments. The police’s autonomy has been abolished, and powers have been transferred back to the Chief Minister.
If we look at how the province is being run, one can find that this province has become a glaring example of administrative mismanagement, financial irregularities, and security crisis that occurred during the PTI government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. There is a long list based on facts that can be shared about how in the last ten years, these problems have become a major obstacle to public welfare and provincial development.
Audit reports reveal that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa treasury suffered a loss of Rs 152 billion, which is a result of fraud, mismanagement, and illegal expenditure. As many as Rs 84 billion was lost due to misclassification of development expenditure, while Rs 13.29 crore was spent on fake payments and Rs 51.46 crore was spent on suspicious transactions. Interestingly, Government vehicles worth Rs 8 million are missing from the transport pool and nobody knows where they are parked or who is using them. In the meantime, a Debt crisis has intensified and the province’s debt has reached Rs 725 billion, which is expected to reach Rs 2,555 billion by 2030. The annual interest payment is Rs 355 billion, which is equal to the development budget. Audit reports claim that the above-mentioned loans were mostly spent on unnecessary and shoddy projects. Illegal appointments in the Health, Education, and Tourism sectors cost over Rs. 6 billion losses to the province till December 2024.
According to media reports, the Education structure is on the verge of financial as well as administrative collapse and the KP Universities Amendment Bill 2024 has added fuel to the fire as it replaced the Governor with the Chief Minister as the Chancellor (of universities). This move has paved the way for political appointments in higher education institutions and jeopardized academic freedom.
Audit reports indicate that important development projects, such as tourism infrastructure, suffered severe delays and overspending of Rs 2.68 billion. The cost of water and sanitation projects in DI Khan and Bannu was increased by 600 percent, which is unnecessary and unjustifiable.
