PESHAWAR: Ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (MPAs) on Thursday asked own provincial government to improve health and education sectors, saying that the government-run hospitals and schools had lost performance.
They made the proposal as lawmakers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly presented suggestions during pre-budget debate.According to the new rules of business adopted by the provincial assembly, provincial assembly members would now present their suggestions for the upcoming annual budget during pre-budget debates where the members from opposition and treasury benches would be allowed to discuss the current budget and also present their suggestion for the next annual budget.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swati chaired the session.Adviser to Chief Minister on Finance Muzzammil Aslam participated for the first time in the assembly proceeding after acquiring the status of a minister.
Provincial Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Aftab Alam presented Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Public Finance Management (Amendment) Bill 2026 that was unanimously approved after Pakistan People’s Party MPA Ahmad Karim Kundi took back his amendment in the Bill.
Speaking on the occasion Muzzammil Aslam appreciated the tradition of pre-budget debates in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and hoped that the lawmakers would put suggestions for the next annual budget.
He said that the federal government had estimated a revenue of 14,200 billion tax for the current financial years and if the federal government could not achieve its target, then the share of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would also be reduced as the province most defend on the federal revenue and it would definitely affected the present budget of the province.
The adviser said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government would receive about Rs 90 billion from its share as reflected in the federal budget, saying that federal government should also enhance the share of the province in the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award as the population and size of the province had been increased after the merger of tribal areas into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2018.
Pakistan People’s Party parliamentary party leader Ahmad Karim Kundi while participating in the pre-budget debate said that the PTI-led provincial government had failed to fight and achieve the financial case of Rs 5000 billion with the federal government as the PTI remained in power for the last 13 years in the province.
“The provincial government focused on individualism in the province instead of focusing on improving the institutionalized structure of the financial management”, he added. “No developmental schemes were discussed or approved under the DDAC but individuals, mostly ruling party MPAs and office-bearers, decided the fate of development schemes in the district where opposition members including local government representatives were given no value or share in such schemes,” he explained.
The PPP MPA added that the provincial government, on one hand, was blaming the federal government for unequal distribution of schemes but on the other, the Provincial Finance Commission was not followed or honored in the province.
He criticized the provincial government for not following annual reports under NFC Awards as under the constitution the federal government as well as the provincial government were bound to present annual reports in the National Assembly and provincial assembly as well.
The PPP MPA said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was not given its due shares in net hydel profit, oil and gas, river water and other heads for the last many years and the provincial government had not fought its legal and constitutional rights with the federal government.
Sardar Shajehan Yusuf of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz said that the provincial government had claimed for a surplus, tax free and people friendly budget at the time of presenting its annual budget but at the end of the financial year the budget become deficit and then moved to a supplementary budget.
He said that the finance minister should present a budget with actual figures and estimates at the time of the annual budget. Sardar Shajehan Yusuf said that the provincial government must focus on health and education sectors in the upcoming budget where buildings for schools and hospitals were built but millions of children were still out of schools and thousands of people were deprived of basic health facilities in the province.
Ruling party MPAs including former provincial minister Syed Qasim Shah and Nazir Ahmad Abbassi suggested that the provincial government must improve health and education sectors in the province as the government-run schools and hospitals had lost their performance and image in the last two decades.
Nazir Ahmad Abbassi said that dozens of schools damaged or destroyed in 2005 earthquakes in the Hazara division have yet to be reconstructed where hundreds of children study under the open sky.
Syed Qasim Shah said that the provincial government was spending huge amounts on government schools, teachers and other facilities but the result and performance of the government schools was declining day by day so the government must support and provide financial assistance to private schools for enrolling students from poor and middle class families. The session was adjourned till Monday afternoon when a member from the opposition benches pointed out lack of quorum.
