PESHAWAR           -          Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to freeze its development programme temporarily owing to the financial crunch. Sources in the provincial bureaucracy state that a major reason behind the decision is that the province has not received Rs100 billion funds from the federal government in terms of net hydel profit and other heads. The decision of suspending the development programme has been taken to prevent the province from the financial crisis, while there are rumours that the KP government has also approached World Bank and Asian Development Bank for loans. Instead of the uplift programme, the provincial government would try to spend funds on payment of salaries to employees of various government departments as well as other urgent matters. It merits a mention here that the provincial government had approved projects worth Rs157 billion a few days ago. A meeting of the Provincial Development Working Party had approved around 80 development projects in various parts of the province, including in the sectors of health, irrigation, mines and minerals and others. A senior official of the bureaucracy told this correspondent that the provincial government had banned expenditures on renovation and non-salary expenditures, adding that tough decisions are needed for financial stability. Discussing the loans, he said: “Loans are not a bad option but should be utilized wisely.” He added that there are several factors responsible for the financial crisis, such as economic recession and high inflation. Also, floods have wreaked havoc in Pakistan and caused damages worth 30 billion dollars, he added. The official also said that the province has not shared enough funds as per the PFC share and NHP arrears. Another public servant from the Civil Secretariat told The Nation that hundreds of project employees, who were regularized recently, had not been paid salaries for several months due to the ongoing financial crunch in the province. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Secretary Finance Ikramullah Khan was contacted to get his point of view on the subject. However, he neither picked up calls, nor responded to the text messages delivered on his WhatsApp number about the financial matters.