KP govt furious as CM Gandapur not invited to May 25 SIFC meeting

ISLAMABAD: Blaming the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)-led federal government for making "biased moves", the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government expressed displeasure for not getting an invitation for the upcoming apex committee's session of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC).

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif summoned the SIFC’s session at 11:45am on May 25 (Saturday), however, it emerged that KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur was not invited to the forthcoming meeting.

Chief ministers of other provinces — Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan — have been invited to the SIFC session, however, CM Gandapur was not given a formal invitation to attend it.

The upcoming session will be attended by the top officials, including deputy prime minister-cum-foreign minister Senator Ishaq Dar, ministers for information, finance, defence, planning and development, commerce, law and justice, water resources, and provincial chief secretaries.

Reacting to the development, KP government’s spokesperson Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif censured the federal government, saying that the “Form 47 government of Shehbaz Sharif” exhibited bias towards the province."

“Fake ‘Form 47’ government is pushing the country towards provincialism. We would not accept any decision regarding the fate of our province possessing natural resources in the absence of the chief minister. The KP government strongly condemns this biased step,” he added.

Adviser to KP CM on Finance Muzzammil Aslam slammed the Centre’s decision for not inviting CM Gandapur to the SIFC apex committee’s session bearing “malice” and an “insult of the public mandate”.

Aslam claimed that PM Office was involved in neglecting the KP province and demanded the Centre to review the decision. He blamed the forum for failing to bring reasonable investments to the country in one and a half year.

He clarified that the province was not involved in the confrontation, except for demanding its dues from the federal government.

Earlier this month, CM Gandapur had come down hard on the federal government, again, and warned of a strong reaction if the Centre failed to give an exact timeframe for resolving the province’s core issues.

Gandapur warned the federal government of a strong reaction if it fails to give an exact timeline for resolving the province’s core issues, including payments of dues, new taxes, promised funds for countering law and order issues, loadshedding, and special funds for tribal areas.