Federal govt to soon release funds for merged tribal districts: Hammad

ISLAMABAD, Mar 06 (APP):Minister of State for Finance and Revenue Hammad Azhar on Wednesday informed the Senate that the Federal Government would soon release funds for the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) as pledged at the time for their merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
He was responding to a calling attention notice of Senator Muhammad Ayub, who drew the attention of the House towards the non-payment of Rs 100 billion to the merged tribal districts as announced by the government in the uplift package.
The minster informed the House that on the receipt of written instructions from the the Prime Minster’s Office on January 1, the Ministry of Finance had allocated 3 percent funds from the divisible pool and had also written to the provinces to provide their shares.
The governments of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had responded positively while the responses from Balochistan and Sindh were yet awaited, he added. He said the issue lingered on as the meeting of National Finance Commission was convened with delay in February.
The federal government would fulfill its promise, he assured.
Minster for Defence Pervez Khattat supported the minister of state and requested the Sindh and Balochistan governments to play their due role in that regard.