Peshawar: The finance department has proposed that new districts should be created in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on the basis of population & area instead of political considerations, a news source reported. The rationale behind the proposal being the prevention of expenditure of billions of rupees for the establishment of new administrative units.
The proposal was presented in the last provincial cabinet meeting but the discussion was deferred, so it will be placed before the next meeting. The summary for the proposal had been prepared a month after the cabinet approved the division of Chitral district in November, 2018. The provincial government in its previous term had also divided Kohistan district on political considerations.
The summary of the proposal notes that the government has to bear an additional burden of PKR 1.7 billion per annum for the creation of a new province. On a similar note, it stated that it will take a minimum figure of PKR 4 billion for setting up infrastructure for upgrading tehsil-level institutions to district level. The proposal asks for a revision in the policy of creating new districts in view of the financial constraints of the province.
