Non-release of FATA development funds: opposition, ANP stage walk out from Senate

The opposition as well as Awami National Party's (ANP) senators on Tuesday staged a token walkout from Senate against the federal government for non-payment of royalty on hydro power generation to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and non-release of funds to FATA members for development projects.
While raising issue in the Upper House of the Parliament, Afrasiab Khattak of ANP said that the federal government was not giving royalty on hydro power generation to KP as per the agreement. He said that the government has capped royalty at Rs 6 billion per year while it should give Rs 25 billion per year. He said that the government should increase royalty because profit on hydro generation has increased during last two years.
While supporting the stance of FATA members, he said that the government has released only Rs 660 million out of Rs 16 billion PSDP allocations, which is injustice. Muhammad Ishaq Dar of PML-N said that his party supported the issue of FATA senators. He said that the government should release funds of FATA members.
Maulana Gul Naseeb of JUI-F also supported Afrasiab Khattak and said that the government should resolve the issue of royalty on hydro power generation of KP. He said that despite arrears of KP, the issue of profit on power generation should be resolved. Senator Abdul Rehim Mandokhel also supported the ANP on this issue and said the government should resolve the issue immediately.
Earlier, Senator Engr. Malik Rashid Ahmed Khan from FATA raised the issue of FATA members and said that the government has allocated Rs 16 billion in PSDP for FATA but it only released Rs 660 million so far. He said that FATA members would continue protest until the government did not release complete funds ie, Rs 16 million. He announced that FATA member were going to stage token walkout form Senate in protest against the government.
On it, PML-N, ANP, Jamaat-e-Islami, senators of independent group of PML-Q joined FATA members in their token walkout from the Senate. Meanwhile, Senator Safdar Abbasi of PPP said that Pakistan was moving towards economic collapse and if this happened, the PPP government would be responsible for it. He said that the government borrowed Rs 300 billion from commercial banks during last three months. He said that the debts of the country were increasing day by day which was very serious.