According to a Business Recorder news item, “The federal cabinet has reportedly decided to conduct financial and performance audit of Rs417 billion allocated to KPK under the NFC Award, 2010”. The cabinet seems to have taken this decision in view of an alarming surge in the incidents of terrorism, including the Peshawar Police Lines mosque blast, in a province that has received Rs417 billion since 2010 for capacity-building of police and security forces.
It is important to note that this allocation was made despite the setting up of National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta) and Counter Terrorism Department (CTD). Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) that had been ruling the province until recently has claimed that its government spent Rs500 billion on capacity-building of police in 10 years.
Is it a fact or not, we really don’t know. The situation, in my view, underscores the need for a fair and transparent audit. The KPK province must have its accounts audited. An audit team must get to the bottom of this spending.
Haider Khan (Peshawar)
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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