Altaf Hamid Rao
MIRPUR (Parliament Times): Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Illayas of the PTI-led AJK Govt. seems started harping on the tone of his party’s Supremo Imran Khan framing allegations of discrimination towards his government on the part of the Central government.
The PM expressed these views while addressing a ceremony hosted in the State metropolis on Saturday. The AJK Prime Minister further said that the leaders sitting in Islamabad do not understand the geographical sensitivity of Azad Jammu Kashmir. “The region and its people are being ignored merely for voting the PTI”, he maintained.
The Prime Minister said alleged as saying “our financial problems have doubled since new government took charge in the centre”. “Resultantly, Azad Jammu Kashmir government was facing severe financial problems since new coalition government took reigns of power in the centre”, he maintained.
Sardar Tanveer Illayas continued as saying “ it was unfortunate that creating hurdles in the financial affairs of the government of Azad Kashmir has become a part of the federal government’s daily routine”
Referring to 2018’s financial contract between the AJK and the central government of Pakistan, the AJK PM said, “As per the agreement the share of Azad Kashmir is 3.6% of the total revenue income determined by the federation, which amounts to 225 billion rupees”. “To the contrary, the AJK government was allotted a variable grant of 74.32 billion rupees, out of which 59.5 billion have been given while 15.02 billion are still due”, he said.
The irony, he said, was that the federal government has laid the burden of pensions, hardship allowances and employees’ salaries on the shoulders of cash-starved government of Azad Kashmir. Terming it as a sheer injustice on the part of central government, the PM said that government cannot afford to leave the people in lurch. He said that government will ensure the protection of public interests despite all odds. He said that the cuts on the region’s development and non-development budget by the federal government has frozen the development process in liberated territory.
“Owing to the budgetary cuts it has became difficult for the government to pay the salaries and pensions to the employees and pensioners”, the PM said, adding that after employees’ strike government issued a notification to increase the salaries from its own resources.
He said that the projects initiated by the federal government in Azad Kashmir have also been made part of the annual development program of the Azad Kashmir government. He said that funds allocated for Kail Road, Assembly building and Rathwa Hariyam Bridge have also been delayed.
He said that providing 100% development budget for Azad Kashmir was the central government’s responsibility.
