PESHAWAR: Ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MPAs on Thursday asked their own provincial government to improve health and education sectors, saying the government-run hospitals and schools were performing poorly. They made the proposal as lawmakers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly presented suggestions during the pre-budget debate.
According to the new rules of business adopted by the provincial assembly, members would now present their suggestions for the upcoming annual budget during pre-budget debates where members from opposition and treasury benches would be allowed to discuss the current budget and also present their suggestions 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 proceedings after acquiring the status of a minister.
Provincial Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Aftab Alam presented the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Public Finance Management (Amendment) Bill 2026 that was unanimously approved after Pakistan Peoples 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 the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and hoped that the lawmakers would put suggestions for the next annual budget. He said the federal government had estimated to generate revenue of Rs14,200 billion for the current financial year. But if the federal government could not achieve its target, then the share of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would also be reduced, and it would definitely affect the present budget of the province.
The adviser said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government would receive about Rs90 billion from its share as reflected in the federal budget, saying the 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 increased after the merger of tribal areas into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2018.
Pakistan Peoples Party parliamentary party leader Ahmad Karim Kundi, while participating in the pre-budget debate, said the PTI-led provincial government had failed to fight and achieve the case of Rs5,000 billion put up to the federal government. The PTI remained in power for the last 13 years in the province, he said. “The provincial government focused on individualism in the province instead of focusing on improving institutionalised structure of financial management”, he added.
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 as the provincial government had not fought its legal and constitutional rights with the federal government.
Sardar Shajehan Yusuf said the finance minister should present a budget with actual figures and estimates at the time of the annual budget. He said the provincial government must focus on health and education sectors in the upcoming budget. 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, he added.
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 performed poorly.
Nazir Ahmad Abbassi said that dozens of schools damaged or destroyed in the 2005 earthquake in the Hazara Division were yet to be reconstructed as hundreds of children study under the open sky.
