PESHAWAR - Egoism is one of the factors behind the ongoing crisis in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. While the province faces a financial crisis and insecurity, the tension between Chief Minister Mahmood Khan and Governor Ghulam Ali seems to be further aggravating the ongoing crisis. The governor recently sought the state helicopter to visit DI Khan, where Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was also scheduled to arrive. According to sources in the Governor House, even before this, the governor had sought the copter for some visits; however, the copter was denied by the CM House. At this, the governor announced not to allow the copter to land in the Governor’s House. It merits a mention here that the CM House does not have a helipad that is why the state helicopter lands in the Governor House. In the prevailing situation when the province even finds it difficult to pay salaries to the government departments’ employees, the ongoing tension may create more problems. Even before the governor-CM issue, the PTI did not prefer to resolve KP’s financial issues by directly approaching the prime minister and instead, the party tried to use the office of the president of Pakistan and that approach also did not work well. And now the chief minister’s refusal to give the copter has created another tension for the province. One factor behind the ongoing tension can also be the recent refusal of the governor to approve a bill, passed by the PTI-led KP Assembly, which justified the use of the state helicopter by even a government department employee. The bill was termed by various political parties an attempt to give legal cover to the use of copter by PTI chairman Imran Khan and other party leaders in recent years. On the other hand, reports suggest that the loans taken by the KP government has surpassed Rs594 billion, of which Rs359.53 billion have already been received from international bodies while a sum of Rs179.61 billion is still awaited. Whether the chief minister’s refusal is linked to the PTI chairman’s advice or not, the fact remains that the province needs funds, for which a cooperative mode is needed between the province and the federation. Now a question arises as to what is more important: solving the issues of the public such as price hike, insecurity and other issues, or the use of a helicopter? It is the need of the hour that the provincial government develop friendly relations with the centre in order to solve its financial problems. And even the PTI chief Imran Khan should also display tolerance and ask his party leaders to be tolerant in order to solve the province’s problems, instead of creating more tension with the federal government
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