Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi on Friday said that the province would withhold grants for the federal government until authorities allowed meetings with jailed PTI founder Imran Khan.
The KP chief minister made the remarks during his budget speech, presenting the provincial budget for the fiscal year 2026-27 with an outlay of Rs2.17 trillion and a projected deficit of Rs48 billion.
“Until meetings are restored, no grant will be filed,” he said, adding that the provincial government’s demand was for the PTI founder to receive treatment at the best hospital and for meetings with him to be resumed.
The chief minister said that 92 members of the provincial assembly had collectively decided to present the budget and thanked parliamentarians for working day and night on the financial plan.
PTI Secretary General Barrister Salman Akram Raja had previously said that the KP government would approve only a three-month budget paper if a meeting with the jailed PTI founder does not take place before June 30.
Speaking to the media on June 16, Raja said the final budget would not be presented until consultation with the former prime minister had taken place.
Khan has been jailed since August 2023 after convictions he and his PTI call politically motivated.
Since his 2022 ouster in a no-confidence vote, he has faced multiple cases, including over state gifts and an unlawful marriage. Some convictions have been suspended or overturned, with appeals pending. He denies wrongdoing.
Later, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said that only Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif could decide on the demand to allow a meeting with Khan before contributing funds to the federal government.
Speaking on Geo News programme ‘Capital Talk’, the finance minister said that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government had no objection “in principle” to cutting development spending to release funds to the Centre.
CM Afridi is presenting the budget after an Opposition delegation led by PTI’s Asad Qaiser met FinMin Aurangzeb in Islamabad to discuss budget-related concerns.
Speaking to the media after the meeting, Qaiser said that the PTI delegation discussed issues related to erstwhile FATA/PATA with the government delegation.
He added that political matters were not discussed during the meeting, but said the opposition was ready for a “Charter of Democracy”.
