A legitimate KPK protest

The protest led by Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) Pervez Khattak was supported by most of the parties with a presence in the provincial assembly, including the Pakistan People's Party, Jamaat-e-Islami, Qaumi Watan Party, Awami National Party, and Awami Jamhoori Party. This show of unanimity between bitter political rivals sends a good message to the people of the province namely that the politicians are united in protecting their financial interests. Only two parties' provincial assembly members were visibly absent namely the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam (Fazlur Rehman group) and one would have hoped that they too had lent their voice to the legitimate concerns of their colleagues.
The objective of the protest outside parliament house in the federal capital was two-fold: the delay in payment of hydel profit that had been agreed in the 7th National Finance Commission (NFC) Award and concerns over bypassing KPK in the design of projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
The federal minister who negotiated on behalf of the federal government with the protesters was Khawaja Asif and he acknowledged that the agreement to release hydel profits to KPK was already reached with Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar but that it was yet to be implemented. He added that Dar was in Kabul with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif at the time and committed that he would fix a time for the provincial government representatives to meet with Dar upon his return.
The obvious reason for the failure of the federal government to release funds is the lack of resources available and the time bound commitment to reduce the budget deficit under the 6.64 billion dollar International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Extended Fund Facility. Today with less than a month and a half left for the end of the current fiscal year there is ample evidence that the federal government has not only been unable to extend committed resources for development projects, including mega projects in the energy sector, leading to a significant escalation in their cost, but the budgeted revenue collections have been far less than expected. Be that as it may, the KPK government no doubt budgeted hydel profit inflows and is worried about its capacity to meet its budgeted expenditure allocations. There is thus a need for the federal government to release the agreed amount. In this context, it is relevant to note that talks have begun on the 8th NFC Award and any failure to meet the commitments of the 7th NFC Award would further murky the atmosphere between the federal and the provincial governments making any agreement that, as per the constitution, has to be by consensus unlikely.
The protesters also expressed concern over the CPEC with respect to the proposed investments in KPK. Many government officials have repeatedly assured members of the opposition that the CPEC design remains unchanged and that all the provinces would benefit with Punjab not the frontrunner with respect to the benefits. However, they have been unable to convince members of the opposition. The Prime Minister called for a meeting with the leaders of political parties to clarify that this is indeed so. It is not clear why the PM House instead of parliament has been used as a forum where the government would present its clarification because secrecy in commercial and/or government-to-government deals that would benefit this country irrespective of the rate of interest at which loans are extended defies logic. The easiest and the most effective method would be to place the signed Memoranda of Understanding under the CPEC on the websites of relevant ministries together with project designs.