PTI warns govt against targeting Taimur Jhagra

PTI leader Asad Umar speaking to media in Karachi. -Screengrab

ISLAMABAD: PTI leader Asad Umar on Saturday blasted the coalition government for "trying to suppress Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Minister Taimur Jhagra's voice" after he wrote a letter to the Centre hinting at withdrawing from a commitment made with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the revival of the $6 billion loan programme. A day earlier, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail lashed out at Taimur Khan Jhagra for jeopardising the IMF programme ahead of its Executive Board meeting scheduled for Monday (August 29). Addressing a press conference, Miftah criticised the PTI leaders for putting the country at stake when it is already reeling from the devastations caused by flash floods and relentless rains — which have affected more than 30 million people. It is pertinent to mention here that KP government refused to implement the IMF loan precondition for the surplus budget, citing the non-payment of arrears of around Rs100 billion by the federal government. 
KP Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra has sent a letter to Federal Minister for Finance Miftah Ismail and hinted at forwarding a copy of the same to the IMF. Strongly reacting to Miftah’s statement, Asad Umar said, “Taimur Jhagra is demanding the right of the province.” He warned against suppressing the voice of the provincial finance minister.
Berating the finance minister, the PTI leader said that even PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif is “testifying your incompetency.” Jhagra penned a letter to the federal government and extended cooperation but he was not contacted despite a span of two months, he revealed. “The coalition government is trying to shift the blame of its failure to Taimur Jhagra,” he added. If you think that you will run the country with a stick, then this is your fantasy, the PTI leader told the government. He told Miftah, “Due to your incompetency, you have made people’s lives more miserable.” He held the finance minister responsible for whatever is happening in the country. Moving on to floods, the PTI leader said that Imran Khan has directed his party to provide every possible help to the flood affectees.

Taimur writes letter to Miftah

In the letter, Taimur said that according to the provincial government's estimate the overall impact of not resolving these issues is actually to create an Rs100 billion unfunded liability in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa budget. It further added that the monsoon flooding has further worsened the situation of the province and caused destruction in Swat, DI Khan and Tank. "The cost in terms of rescue, relief, rehabilitation and building back is likely to run into the tens of billions," it stated. The provincial finance minister said that these conditions without the resolution make it "impossible" to leave a surplus. 

Four points raised by KP finance minister

1. Perhaps most importantly, to resolve the budget allocations for ex-FATA, which, in the absence of an updated NFC award, are decided at the discretion of the federal government.

• To resolve the issue of current budget allocations for ex-FATA, which are insufficient to cover even the monthly salary costs of existing employees.
• To finance the transfer of the Sehat Card Programme for the residents of ex-FATA, in which the federal government has chosen to unilaterally deprive the 6 million residents of ex-FATA of health insurance.
• To ensure adequate budgeting to cater to the needs of TDPs (Temporarily Displaced Persons moved into out of districts camp because of operations against militancy).

2. To commit to monthly NHP transfers based on the MoU signed between the federal government and the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2016. Incidentally, this MoU was signed during the previous PML-N. 3. For the federal government to immediately revive the National Finance Commission (NFC), so that these issues can be resolved more permanently. 4. For the federal government to also commit to immediately engage and resolve other financial issues with the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. These include but are not limited to; clearing outstanding liabilities to the Pakhtunkwa Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation (PEDO); resolving the issues of energy wheeling; resolving the issue of WACOG, and the availability of natural gas to the province in line with Article 158; the financing of PESCO to develop transmission and distribution infrastructure in the province; and the commitment of the federal government to not delay execution of provincially funded PESCO and TESCO projects; and not substituting the Federal Excise Duty with the Petroleum levy without provincial consent, as this amounts to unilaterally reducing the size of provincial transfers from the total quantum of federal collections.

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