Overview
- A high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Muhammad Sohail Afridi on Thursday resolved to send an official letter to the federal government and to pursue the taxation and power disputes through institutional and constitutional channels.
- The province objects to a new federal decision to extend taxes to the merged districts and ex-PATA, arguing the federal government had promised no taxation until those areas reached development parity.
- KP leaders say the tax move follows alleged shortfalls in the National Finance Commission award, the Accelerated Implementation Programme and other budget allocations for the merged districts.
- Afridi ordered a joint operational meeting of the regional power distributors PESCO, TESCO and HESCO to seek urgent solutions to prolonged unscheduled load‑shedding and low voltage during peak summer demand.
- The dispute raises the risk of deeper provincial‑federal fiscal and political tensions and could prompt legal challenges; residents face immediate hardship from outages and officials say they will monitor the federal response and utility fixes closely.