PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government has put a list of 24 demands before the federation including payment for power produced by the province.
The province has demanded the federation to provide additional force for war on terror and pay for the 13 percent hydel electricity that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa adds to the national grid.
On the other hand, Finance Ministry stated that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been given Rs 114 billion for resources to be used in fight against terrorism. The authorities further stated that rightful demands of the province would be met.
Senate’s special committee has sided with the province in the matter.
It is not the first time that the provincial government has demanded additional force to curb terror attacks. On February 04, the government had demanded the federation to send back Frontier Corps (FC) for security.
Parliamentary Secretary Shaukat Yousafzai had said that untoward incidents could be avoided across the country by deploying FC on borders of tribal areas.
Frontier Corps was formed in 1915 with a purpose to bar entrance of extremists in localities adjoining tribal areas. The corps has been offering services for a long time after Indo-Pak separation in areas near Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
There are around 800 platoons out of which 36 are deployed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The rest of the platoons have been deployed in different areas including Islamabad, Karachi and Balochistan.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had also demanded FC’s return after Army Public School (APS) attack in December 2014 and then after Bacha Khan University attack in Charsadda on January 20 this year.
Total number of personnel that FC has is 32,000 however, only 1,400 are under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police.
Qaumi Watan Party’s (QWP) chairman Aftab Sherpao had said that FC’s job is not to guard embassies. He said that prior to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) government, Awami National Party (ANP) had also demanded the federation to deploy FC in the province. NNI