ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has pledged Rs160 billion (around $578 million) for development projects in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, vowing to accelerate stalled initiatives under an emergency rule in the militancy-hit region.

The development comes as KP faces persistent security and governance challenges, which the government of PM Sharif says forced it to impose governor’s rule and an emergency in the region on Oct. 11, removing the provincial government of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.

Islamabad says it intervened because militant attacks had intensified and the provincial government had failed to cooperate in counterterrorism efforts, while also ignoring health care, education and public welfare. The PTI-led former administration rejects the allegations and calls the move politically motivated.

On his first visit to the province since the imposition of emergency rule, Sharif promised to expedite development work, improve security, strengthen provincial police force by providing it equipment and weapons, and to streamline administrative affairs in the province bordering Afghanistan.

“The federal government will provide Rs160 billion for development work in the province,” Sharif told tribal elders and members of a council overseeing emergency measures in tribal districts.

“Similarly, there are extremely important projects on which plaques have been installed, but work is progressing at a very slow pace. I have directed that these projects be completed quickly.”

Under the new administrative arrangement, Governor Faisal Karim Kundi is running provincial affairs with the assistance of the advisory council.

The prime minister said the federal government will resolve obstacles in its ongoing projects.

“As for provincial projects, the governor and his team will immediately remove any obstacles and ensure that the projects are completed at a faster pace,” he said.

The prime minister earlier voiced his support for emergency rule at a security meeting in the provincial capital of Peshawar, signaling a potentially tougher approach to restoring security and addressing what the center viewed as failures in the province’s response to militancy.

“Eighty thousand people were martyred and hundreds of billions of dollars were lost. Only then, peace was established in this country again in 2018. After such a great price... the way in which these terrorists were called here again, all the sacrifices were made to go in vain,” Sharif said, referring to the former PTI government’s decision to hold talks with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) during its tenure.

Speaking at the security meeting, Governor Kundi said he was determined to play his part in this joint effort.

“Our first priority is the establishment of peace and the end of terrorism,” he said. “The people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will not have to choose between peace and development.”