Passing of KP budget constitutional duty: Chairman PTI

PESHAWRA
Chairman, Pakistan Tahrik e Insaf, Barrister Gohar Ali Khan here Friday said that passing of the KP budget was a legal and constitutional duty.
Talking to media here, the PTI leader said that passing the annual budget was a provincial matter itself and all lawmakers, including former CM KP Ali Amin Gandapur, would attend the assembly session.
PTI leader Shaukat Yousafzai said one proposal was to present a three-month budget if legal complications became unavoidable, but legal experts advised that such a move would halt development work across the province and would only cover matters such as salaries and pensions.
Shaukat Yousafzai said the party ultimately recommended presenting the full budget to avoid harming the province and to ensure development projects continued. He said the decision was taken in the broader public interest and confirmed that the budget would be presented on Friday.
Addressing reports of internal differences, he said members with reservations were not rebelling against the party and remained committed to PTI. He said all lawmakers would attend the assembly session, express their concerns in speeches and ultimately vote in favour of the party’s position.
He also denied that any back-channel contacts were taking place and said the people of the province had the right to expect consultation with their leader.
Shaukat Yousafzai said the overall budget size was expected to be around Rs2.2 trillion and proposed allocating Rs235 billion for development works. He said the provincial cabinet was finalising salary increases with an effort to ensure minimum pay was sufficient for people to meet their basic needs, particularly at a time when inflation had reached high levels.
He said no new taxes were being imposed in the budget and that several taxes were instead being reduced to ease the burden on the public, describing the budget as tax-free. He also said the provincial government was not including grant-in-aid payments in the budget.
Yousafzai added that the chief minister and his team had tried to ensure the budget did not place additional pressure on the public. He said the budget would be realistic and deficit-based rather than surplus or balanced, with the shortfall expected to be around Rs50 billion and spending aligned with the funds actually received from the federal government.
He said education and health remained key priorities, while tourism, mines and minerals, water resources and electricity generation offered opportunities to make the province more self-reliant.
He added that work was continuing on small and large power projects and that the provincial government was paying special attention to tourism.