PESHAWAR: For the first time in history, Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province on Friday announced its budget of Rs1,754 billion ($6.3 billion) before the federal government, with one of its senior officials justifying the move on the basis of provincial autonomy.

The KP government is led by former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, whose administration in Islamabad was ousted from power following a parliamentary no-confidence vote in April 2022.

Since then, its leadership has struggled to stay politically afloat, with many of its members, including Khan, being incarcerated for several months in multiple legal cases. The PTI is now in the opposition at the center, where its lawmakers frequently clash with members of the treasury benches in a deeply polarized environment.

Speaking to Arab News, KP finance minister’s media officer, Anwar Khan Khattak, said a province could present its own budget after the 18th amendment, which ensures autonomy to all federating units.

“We are not in competition either with provinces or the federal government,” he said. “We have our own exclusivity in terms of governance. That’s why we took a lead in presenting our budget.”

“A province only needs the federal government’s assistance in achieving tax targets,” he added.

However, Asmat Shah, a Peshawar-based journalist and expert on economic affairs, said provinces presented their budget after the federal government, saying the KP government’s decision to do the opposite would only widen the trust deficit with the administration in Islamabad.

“The only logic I see behind KP’s move to present the budget before the federal government is that it wants to demonstrate efficiency to its voters,” he maintained. “Secondly, the PTI-led government wants to show the masses it is not dependent on the federal authorities while making critical decisions.”

Criticizing the budget itself, Shah said that the provincial government should have allocated more funds for security, education and health sectors, which were badly affected due to years of militancy in the region.

Earlier, KP’s finance minister Aftab Alam unveiled the budget in the provincial assembly.

“The total outlay of the budget is Rs1,754 billion,” he said. “Mr. Speaker, development expenditures have a lead role for people’s prosperity and development of the province. Development expenditure not only enhances people’s life standard but creates job opportunities to move the economy in tandem. Rs416.30 billion ($1.49 billion) has been allocated for development expenditures for the fiscal budget 2024-25.”

Alam also criticized the federal authorities for not providing the province’s due share in revenue.

“Mr. Speaker, it is to be mentioned that following the merger of erstwhile tribal districts into KP, the province has a total Rs262 billion ($940.72 million) annual share in the NFC [National Finance Commission] award but the province has received only Rs123 billion ($441.64 million),” he added. “Keeping in view this, KP is facing an annual deficit of Rs139 billion ($499.08 million).”