Strategically important province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa needs a workable and pragmatic road map to take it out of the prevailing crises. The newly elected government of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf backed independent members is enjoying a clear-cut majority.
The province is facing a serious economic crisis to run smoothly, and that could be possible partially by getting financial support from the center, however, there should be an economic revival plan by generating its revenue. Net Hydel Profit or due share in the next National Finance Commission Award are the key issues as the newly elected Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ali Amin Gandapur has already highlighted and taken up with the federal government.
There should be better coordination with the center, keeping aside the political affiliation or differences to move forward. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has been ruled by the same political party – PTI – since 2013, and this is the third time that the people have voted for them.
The people of the province attached high hopes from the provincial government to take the province out of the economic crisis and improve the security situation. The province is said to have been under the burden of 530 billion rupees of loans. The coming budget for the next fiscal year 20024-25 will be a difficult task ahead.
How does the provincial government get its pending amount from the federation? This is one area to be looked into. However, the province is facing unemployment at the highest among all the provinces. This is a major challenge to overcome to provide jobs to the youth in the province.
Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur announced the restoration of health cards for everyone in the province. Politically, this is welcomed by the people, but the critics say the government should focus on improving the conditions of the public sector hospitals in the province.
So, the government has not come up with a comprehensive strategy to tackle all the issues on a priority basis.
The issue of merged districts is also a challenging task as the provincial government is looking towards the federation to provide the agreed 100 billion rupees annual funds for the merged tribal districts.
The provincial claims it has received only 103 billion rupees of the amount since 2018. According to reports, the province should have received 500 billion rupees till now. It is a 10 year plan and a total amount of 1000 billion rupees will be provided by the federation.
The formerly tribal districts have also been given waiver of taxes and duties, and this is a huge task for the government to extend regular taxation laws to the merged districts as the people of these areas have been resisting any reforms or extension of taxes to these districts.
The tribal districts are lying along the Pak-Afghan border and worst-hit by militancy. The government needs to closely cooperate with the federal government to ensure law and order in these districts.
Other than economic health, the province is facing the menace of terrorism. Both economic and security issues need to be taken seriously. There should be an action plan to eliminate terrorism, though, a difficult but not impossible one. Economy and security are closely interlinked. The reemergence of the terrorism has also been affecting the economic and business activities in the province.
The situation is not different from the rest of the country, but as the province is sharing a volatile border with Afghanistan that is making it difficult to cope with the terrorism. Pakistan and Afghanistan bilateral relations have been worst-hit by the growing incidents of terrorist attacks in the KP and Balochistan.
The party line of PTI is different from what is needed now to counter terrorism that has increased since the Afghan Taliban took over Afghanistan. Pakistan has been repeatedly asking Kabul to stop this cross-border attacks, however, no positive response from the Afghan Taliban.
The business community of the province has been asking the government to provide them proper security. The provincial government should make a plan to revive peace and security. If the government wants to win back the confidence of the investors and business community, it needs to focus on the law and order situation.
Security agencies have been fighting the terrorists in parts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but this could be rooted out by political patronage. There have been some successes in countering terrorism, but the provincial government should lead it from the front.
This could not be possible only by conducting military operations. There should be a political will to back the security agencies to defeat terrorism.
This is a national issue and the federation should support the provincial government, but the provincial government should take initiative first.
Unlike the past, this time the issue of terrorism has become much more complicated as they are on the hit-and-run. The terrorists have been allegedly enjoying safe havens across the border. Unfortunately, the Afghan side is denying the presence of the terrorists, using its land to carry out attacks inside Pakistan.
This is not possible that the ruling Khyber Pakhtunkhwa could single-handedly resolve the political, economic and security issues. Federation, the provincial government and all the political parties should sit across the table to help the province out of the crises.
Any misadventures or political points scoring may further aggravate the situation. So far the Chief Minister has given hints but it needs an outline for the policy to a peaceful and economically sound province.
