Following months-long tussle and exchange of heated arguments over arrears, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Centre have finally agreed to bury the hatchet and work together for public relief.
The development came during a meeting between KP’s firebrand Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi in Islamabad on Monday. Federal Minister for Energy Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari and the federal interior secretary were also among the attendees of the meeting.
It is pertinent to mention here that the KP government and the Centre had been at odds over multiple issues, including the prolonged power cuts in the province with CM Gandapur even threatening to take control of the power distribution company, the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) after decrying the excessive power outages in the province.
In addition to this, the KP government and Centre have been engaged in a verbal spat in recent days with the former complaining of dues that are owed to the province by the federal government.
In March, CM Gandapur threatened to take the Centre to court over the arrears issue.
Addressing a joint presser, following a “meaningful” dialogue, CM Gandapur said: “The federal and provincial institutions will work together. [We] will work together to remove the causes of line losses.”
Referring to the “consensus” developed between the two sides, the provincial chief executive said that they had found a way through which people would get relief.
“Even though KP provides electricity to the entire country,” he said, “the province itself is experiencing prolonged power cuts.”
