DND Special Report
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) has entered a new phase of governance after federal intervention following the imposition of Emergency Rule. The record compiled by the Dispatch News Desk (DND) sets out cases involving financial irregularities, weak accountability, political interference, failed development projects and deficiencies in essential public services during approximately 13 years of PTI-led provincial rule. The 11-member special advisory council headed by Governor Faisal Karim Kundi should look into these cases because KP voters deserve justice and wish to see culprits of corruption in jails.
The new administrative team should also assess reasons for the sharp deterioration in the province’s security environment as 195 per cent increase in terrorist incidents between March 1, 2024, and September 23, 2026, has been reported. Afghanistan-based terrorist elements, local facilitators, inadequate preparedness and ineffective counterterrorism measures as major concerns. These security issues, alongside the governance record, raise serious questions about the PTI’s priorities.
DND’s compilation covers transportation, forestry, mineral, energy, banking, public debt, healthcare, education, policing, housing, agriculture, local government, taxation, tourism, environmental protection and social welfare. Across these sectors, the DND report identifies recurring problems: public money spent without satisfactory results, weak scrutiny of contracts, politically influenced appointments and allocations, delayed infrastructure, and inadequate delivery of basic services.
The cases below need work of new administrative team to fix responsibility of financial irregularities, administrative failures and criminal corruption and find the culprits and try them to courts.
The report document describes the dismantling of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission (KPEC) as a major blow to provincial accountability. It states that the commission was shut down after arresting a sitting PTI minister, that amendments curtailed the director-general’s authority to investigate cabinet members, and that active cases were transferred to the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE). It also records expenditure of more than Rs1 billion on the commission without recoveries from party ministers.
The Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project is another major focus. According to the compilation, its cost rose from Rs49 billion to more than Rs70 billion, while poor design, questionable contracting and the quality of some hybrid buses created serious concerns. The document puts the cost of rebuilding sections of University Road at approximately Rs1.5 billion and says that advertising rights were granted at nominal rates. It also estimates that annual BRT losses required subsidies of Rs4–6 billion, placing additional pressure on the provincial budget. The DND document questions the selection of contractors for major packages. These issues warrant examination through the project’s contracts, procurement files, court records, audit reports and final operating accounts.
The Billion Tree Tsunami programme is cited as a major example of shortcomings in the management and verification of public expenditure. The report states that the Auditor General identified more than Rs14 billion in irregularities and unverified spending. It also describes payments to private nurseries, planting records that did not match satellite imagery, and discrepancies between claimed and verifiable plantation results.
The compilation refers to National Accountability Bureau proceedings involving senior forestry officials and sapling tenders worth Rs462 million. It also raises concerns about commercial timber extraction in protected Kohistan cedar forests and the lease of 275 acres of protected Malam Jabba forest to a developer on favourable terms.
Other matters include changes to the protected status of parts of Galiyat for housing and resort development; the allocation of Swat emerald and gemstone blocks without the environmental clearances cited as necessary; and amendments to the Mines Act in 2019 that the report says weakened competitive bidding.
The mineral sector presents further questions about public revenue and regulatory enforcement. The list identifies chromite extraction in Mohmand, phosphate royalties in Abbottabad, silica and limestone concessions in Nowshera, marble extraction in Buner, and sand and gravel contracts along the Swat and Kabul rivers. It says political connections and weak oversight undermined transparent licensing and royalty collection. Public access to mineral royalty records is also identified as a concern.
The document questions the performance and value for money of 356 micro-hydropower schemes, stating that more than 60 per cent were non-functional or effectively abandoned within two years. It also raises concerns about appointments and expenditure at the Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organization (PEDO), deteriorating Machai hydro turbines, delays and inflated civil works at the Ranolia power plant, and spending on industrial wheeling studies while affordable hydropower remained unavailable to industrial areas such as Gadoon and Hattar.
The Bank of Khyber features in the account of political interference in public institutions. The report says the bank’s managing director publicly raised concerns about pressure from ministers over appointments and lending before being removed. It also describes the restructuring or rollover of bad loans involving politically connected industrialists. The handling of civil servants’ pension reserves is questioned because, according to the report, funds were placed in high-risk private portfolios without the required treasury approval.
The province’s finances also deteriorated substantially over the period covered. The document states that public debt rose from less than Rs100 billion in 2013 to more than Rs1 trillion by 2024. It also puts the unfunded pension liability above Rs4 trillion and links it to contract regularisations it considers unjustified. These figures should be checked against provincial debt statements, pension valuations, budget documents and audited accounts. The reported consequences include unpaid contractor bills and pressure on salary payments.
The Sehat Card programme and public hospitals are identified as areas requiring scrutiny of spending, service quality and accountability. The report says substantial sums went to inadequately equipped private clinics associated with politically connected individuals while district headquarters hospitals faced shortages. It also describes billing for surgeries and admissions that did not take place, political appointments to hospital boards under the Medical Teaching Institutions (MTI) Act, and payments to foreign-based individuals serving as advisers or administrators.
The compilation further identifies inflated procurement costs for personal protective equipment, ventilators and sanitisation supplies during COVID-19, persistent shortages of insulin and cardiac medicines, and delays in the redevelopment of Lady Reading Hospital’s trauma centre. Procurement files, invoices, hospital records and audit findings are necessary to establish the details and responsibility in each case.
In education, the report records serious financial and administrative problems at the University of Peshawar, Gomal University and the University of Malakand, including salary freezes and institutional distress. It also raises questions about political influence over vice-chancellor appointments, the allocation of more than Rs550 million to Darul Uloom Haqqania, and the condition of more than 8,000 schools in the merged tribal districts that reportedly lacked basic facilities despite substantial allocations.
Recruitment-test integrity is another concern. The report describes paper leaks affecting ETEA and NTS recruitment processes and identifies textbook paper and printing contracts awarded to favoured suppliers as an area requiring procurement scrutiny. The central performance question is whether public spending produced measurable improvements in hospitals, schools, recruitment standards and access to services.
The province’s security institutions form a particularly consequential part of the governance record. The report says changes to the KP Police framework under the 2017 law restored political influence over postings and transfers. It also identifies inadequate funding for the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), delays in the Peshawar Safe City surveillance project, and the deployment of elite police commandos to protect political marches and private residences outside the province.
The report further states that Rescue 1122 ambulances, fire tenders and cranes were used to remove federal blockades during Islamabad protests. Such deployments, if confirmed by official logs and orders, would raise questions about the use of emergency-service assets for political purposes rather than public safety.
The report identifies a series of land acquisition, housing and infrastructure decisions requiring scrutiny. These include compensation paid for land along the Swat Expressway, private property acquisitions along the corridor, irrigation projects and farmland in Dera Ismail Khan associated in the document with the Gandapur family, and Gandhara City housing schemes in which citizen advances were reportedly collected without ownership of the required land.
The compilation also describes preferential allocation of Jalozai housing plots to lawmakers and bureaucrats, prolonged delays in Regi Model Town despite substantial expenditure, and commercial development on Warsak Canal irrigation reserves. It states that more than Rs40 billion was diverted from elected local bodies to centralised development spending and that PTI lawmakers received more than Rs300 million each in discretionary funds before elections without adequate traceability.
Municipal procurement and local development are also questioned. The report cites municipal trucks purchased at prices it describes as excessive, Nowshera infrastructure contracts involving companies linked to the Khattak family, and development spending in Swabi used for private farm roads associated with senior party figures. It also identifies delays to the Peshawar Northern Bypass and land-price disputes involving politically connected owners. Contract files, land records, valuation reports and payment documentation are central to determining responsibility.
The report links mismanagement of wheat stocks to flour shortages and identifies smuggling routes as a report of financial loss. It also criticises the prolonged failure to complete the Chashma Right Bank Canal lift project, which was intended to support agriculture in southern KP.
The report says government-funded solar tube-wells were installed on private land belonging to PTI ticket-holders and that small dams in Karak and Kohat were abandoned after substantial advances were paid to contractors who later absconded. It further questions the use of funds allocated to integrate the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), stating that rereports were shifted into discretionary schemes in settled districts while reconstruction funds for bomb-damaged markets in Waziristan were spent on projects that did not deliver the promised results.
These failures affect more than infrastructure delivery. Irrigation, reconstruction, local employment and basic services are essential to economic stability and public confidence, particularly in districts already facing security and development challenges.
The document identifies weaknesses in revenue collection and enforcement as another recurring governance problem. It describes illegal parking and transport extortion networks at Torkham, use of non-custom-paid vehicle smuggling in Malakand, and obstruction of tobacco cess collection from cigarette manufacturers in Swabi. It also says the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Authority (KPRA) faced pressure to exempt luxury hotels in Swat and Kalam associated with political figures.
The allocation of bus and van route permits in Peshawar and Hazara is also questioned, with the report describing arrangements that favoured politically connected transport operators. Tax assessments, exemption orders, licensing records, customs enforcement data and revenue receipts would establish the scale of any losses and whether rules were applied equally.
The report raises serious questions about the use of provincial assets for political and personal purposes. It records more than 1,800 private flights on the provincial government helicopter that it describes as unauthorised, involving party leaders and social media teams. It also refers to retrospective legislation intended to shield the use of the aircraft from legal consequences.
Other matters include spending on the decoration of the chief minister’s secretariat, an increase in secret funds without adequate auditability, and the use of public information budgets for digital campaigning against political opponents. The report also questions the distribution of state advertising, alleging that established news outlets were disadvantaged while obscure digital platforms associated with the party received funding.
The compilation further identifies missing laptops and high-end servers from the KP Information Technology Board, inflated prices for tourism camping pods, and payments for youth sports kits, travel and food through contractors linked to events that allegedly did not take place. The condition of the Hayatabad Sports Complex and the prolonged reconstruction of Arbab Niaz Stadium are cited as examples of spending that failed to produce timely public benefits.
Environmental management and tourism development also feature in the record. The report describes commercial concrete structures on protected Kumrat riverbeds despite legal restrictions and poor management of environmental funds that left parts of the Swat river basin polluted by dumping.
It further states that tents and ration bags intended for people affected by the 2022 floods were stored in private compounds belonging to party lawmakers instead of being distributed promptly. Schools in Shangla damaged by the 2015 earthquake are also cited as remaining unreconstructed despite the reported availability of international relief funds.
The condition of drinking-water networks in Kohat and Bannu is another example of basic infrastructure being neglected while money was spent on urban projects described in the report as cosmetic. These cases point to the need to track relief supplies, reconstruction grants, project milestones and environmental spending from allocation through final delivery.
The report identifies direct concern for vulnerable residents. It says money intended for Zakat recipients went to party workers, leaving poor widows and orphans without assistance, and that inflated daily headcounts at state shelter homes were used to claim excessive meal reimbursements.
It also describes doctors who did not report to basic health units in Bajaur and Kurram continuing to receive full rural allowances. In the provincial bureaucracy, the report says capable civil servants were sidelined while compliant officials were promoted and permitted to approve questionable project documents, including PC-I development schemes.
The report also questions the failure to provide Karak residents with their constitutional share of gas royalties, while local wells generated substantial revenue. Alongside deteriorating drinking-water networks, these issues raise questions about the fair distribution of public income, oversight of officials and the protection of essential services.
The report concludes that the province was left with depleted finances, unpaid contractor bills, pressure on salary payments and weakened institutions. These are serious claims with consequences for public accountability. They should be assessed through published audit reports, procurement files, budget and debt statements, project evaluations, court records and relevant security data.
Since new team has arrived in the province and majority of them have background of Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR), it would easy for them for a credible final determination that requires the same standard across all cases: identify the public decision or payment, establish the applicable rule, trace the money or asset, examine audit and investigation findings, and determine who was responsible. Where records establish misuse or embezzlement, their findings should the name the responsible institution or official when supported by the record. The central issue is whether public funds were spent lawfully and effectively, whether institutions were protected from political interference, and whether the provincial administration delivered the services and security its residents needed. The 101-point compilation provides a framework for that scrutiny; documentary verification and accountability are essential to turn each entry into a defensible finding.
