PTI plunges Khyber Pakhtunkhwa into loans of trillions

PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) has plunged the province into loans of around Rs 3 trillion, which would take nearly 40 years to return.

While talking to Geo News, PTI Central Deputy Secretary Information Shaukat Yousufzai said the need arose as the Centre would not disburse funds to the province on time. He added they would pay back the loans by generating money from projects for which the funds have been borrowed.

However, the loans are said to burden the people of KP as they would be paid back over decades to come on a markup of 0.6-2.0%.

As per documents available with Geo News, the PTI government has taken loans of nearly Rs 3 trillion. Out of the amount, nearly Rs 99 billion is for three projects, including the Bus Rapid Transit scheme in Peshawar.

The PTI government borrowed Rs 41.88 billion from Asian Development Bank (ADB) for BRT alone, while the remaining approximately Rs 57 billion was being spent on electricity, schools, solarisation of basic health units, and Pehur High-Level Canal in Swabi.

Other than the received amount, the documents state that the incumbent provincial government is waiting on around Rs 2 trillion for 10 other projects from organisations, including World Bank and ADB.

It is said that PTI borrowed five times more money than the previous government — of Awami National Party in KP — did. The ANP government borrowed approximately Rs 21 billion during their tenure in 2007-2013.

However, the PTI information secretary said loans taken in the past went to people’s pockets instead of being spent on development work. He added the PTI government would give details on the use of each and every penny from the money they have borrowed.

An earlier version of the story mentioned Salam Shaukat Yusafzai as the deputy secretary information KP. The error is regretted.