PESHAWAR: Provincial Minister for Information and Public Relations Shafiullah Jan and Irrigation Minister Riaz Khan on Tuesday claimed that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had outperformed other provinces in terms of good governance, development and better service delivery to people.
Addressing a joint press conference here, the ministers highlighted the provincial government’s achievements in the irrigation sector and overall governance in the province.Minister for Information Shafi Jan said that since 2013, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had undertaken historic initiatives to strengthen the irrigation system, construct new dams, enhance flood protection infrastructure, and ensure effective management of water resources.
He said that on the directives of Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, the KP government was presenting the performance of every department before the people to promote transparency and accountability.
Shafi Jan remarked that this was the hallmark of the ‘Form-45 government,’ which considered itself answerable and accountable to the public, adding that under the leadership of Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, KP had outperformed other provinces in terms of governance and development.
He said that the KP government was prepared to compare its performance with any other province on every available forum.
The minister added that the federal government led by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz had consistently adopted a discriminatory attitude towards KP.‘Despite being a major producer of natural gas and electricity, the province continues to face severe gas and power load-shedding,” Shafi Jan said and added that Chief Minister Sohail Afridi had brought together the governor and leaders of opposition parties on one platform to raise the issue of gas shortages and strongly highlighted the matter during the meeting of the National Economic Council.
Shafi Jan also criticized the Punjab government for failing to remove checkposts established to obstruct the transportation of flour to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He maintained that these restrictions remained in place and constituted a violation of Article 151 of the Constitution, which guaranteed freedom of trade and commerce among the provinces.
On the occasion, Minister Riaz Khan also presented a comprehensive briefing on the performance of the Irrigation Department.He said that the department’s annual development budget had increased from Rs4.08 billion in 2013 to Rs23.6 billion in 2025, reflecting the provincial government’s commitment to strengthening irrigation infrastructure.
He informed the media that 352,216 acres of new command area had been brought under irrigation between 2013 and 2025, while 26 dams had been completed between 2013 and 2026, creating a cumulative storage capacity of 176,200 acre-feet and an additional 16 dams are currently at various stages of completion and would provide an estimated storage capacity of 573,300 acre-feet upon completion.
Riaz Khan added that the Warsak Canal Remodeling Project has entered its first phase, with an estimated total cost of Rs23 billion, saying that the project included remodeling the Warsak Canal System and constructing a 5.20-kilometre tunnel, which would provide 300 cusecs of drinking water and 400 cusecs of irrigation water while the project was expected to significantly increase annual agricultural production.
He maintained that between 2013 and 2025, the KP government completed 105 kilometres of flood protection works, including 85 kilometres of embankments along both banks of the Kabul River in Peshawar, Charsadda, and Nowshera at a cost of Rs14 billion.
He added that these flood protection measures played a vital role in safeguarding these districts during the devastating floods of 2022.He further said that although the CRBC Main Canal and Munda Headworks suffered severe damage during the 2022 floods, the CRBC Canal had been fully restored and was now providing uninterrupted irrigation to 360,000 acres of agricultural land.
