PESHAWAR (Kashmir English): The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government is stained with the stigma of 200 billion rupees in corruption at the expense of the KP Police; development funds were embezzled while leaving the personnel defenseless.
Under the guise of “infrastructure and construction,” the PTI provincial leadership misappropriated a massive 200 billion rupees; development projects existed only on paper, while kickbacks lined specific pockets.
At a time when terrorism was rearing its head in KP’s underdeveloped districts and border regions, the IGP of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa submitted a formal summary requesting 42 billion rupees in emergency funds for force protection, night-vision equipment, modern weaponry, and bulletproof checkpoints.
Completely disregarding provincial peace and police safety, the Chief Minister ruthlessly slashed the 42-billion-rupee security budget, reducing it to a mere 14 billion rupees.
The height of irony and callousness is that, despite repeated pleas and entreaties from top police officials, barely 1.4 billion rupees—a mere 3.3 percent of the required funds—have been released from this already slashed budget.
Provincial resources are made available in minutes for marches on Islamabad and political rallies, yet the KP government’s coffers run dry when it comes to procuring weapons for the soldiers laying down their lives on the front lines.
Such is the criminal conduct of the corrupt clique controlling Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s resources. The priority was to deprive police personnel of resources, leaving them as easy targets, so that no questions could be raised regarding the financial plunder amounting to 200 billion rupees.
