PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur on Monday said the federal government had agreed to convene the long-delayed meeting of the National Finance Commission to discuss the post-Fata merger population share of the province in nationalresources.

`I have been agitating this issue at all forums and I did so in the last two apex committee meetings, too. I said that if you don`t convene the meeting soon enough, I will go to the Supreme Court. The army chief endorsed my standpoint in the presence of the prime minister,` Mr Gandapur said at an informal chat-turned into a formal news conference at his residence here.

The chief minister also said the role of the army in today`s Pakistan was an open secret, so the second time he agitated the issue and reminded the army chief, the federal government relented and agreed to convene the NFC meeting.

`I was assured that this[post-merger population share of the province in national resources] will be on the NFC agenda,` he said.

The chief minister said that based on his own calculation, KP would receive an additional fund transfer of Rs120-Rs150 billion per annum.

JIRGA TO AFGHANISTAN: Mr Gandapur also disclosed that contacts had already been established with the leadership in Afghanistan as a prelude to a visit by the team to Kabul in the near future.

He said that work was being done on the terms of reference in collaboration with the federal government for a formatted dialogue with the Afghan Taliban leadership.

The chief minister said that the team`s visit would be followed by a big representative jirga of tribal notables from each of the tribes living along the Afghan border.

`We are being impacted by Afghanistan. Many of the people who fought alongside the Taliban are known to us.

Nomenclatures have changed.

They were called the mujahideen, then the Taliban and now they are called Khawarij, but we have tribal, cultural and historical linkages with them. I am confident of a positive outcome from our endeavour,` he said.

The chief minister waspointedly asked about the posting of a new provincial police chief and whether he has been consulted or he would disown the officer.

He skillfully deflected the question on consultation but came forcefully to defend the posting of Mr Zulfikar Hameed, declaring him a very professional officer.

`He is the best investigator.

Without going into the specifics of what prompted the federal government to send a replacement, Mr Gandapur said there were certain things which were getting delayed.

He conceded that the federal government did not agree to any of the names he had suggested and instead decided to post another officer but added that the officer chosen for the job had good credentials of tracking down terrorists in the Punjab.

`I am sure he will do a good job.

In his opening monologue, the chief minister listed a series of initiatives his government had undertaken in the last one year, while debunking allegations of corruption against his government.

He challenged his critics and detractors to prove corruption charges. He also said that work on a draft law to establish a new anti-corruption authority was in the worksand that it would soon be enacted.

`It is surprising that my government is accused of corruption, when I have given a surplus budget of Rs156 billion and the province`s own receipts have shot up by per cent,` he said, while pointing to Punjab`s deficit of Rs156 billion in the budget compared to his own.

The chief minister said that his government not only resumed the Sehat Card health insurance programme but also paid its liabilities of Rs20 billion while introducing transparency to cut down its costs, despite increasing its scope by 30 per cent.

He said that 67 per cent of the patients in the province were going to public sector hospitals, showing their trust in improved health services in government hospitals.

Mr Gandapur said that his government had also brought transparency in the procurement of medicines and had been able to save billions of rupees over the years.

He also said that through data and digitisation, his government was able to work out the number of children out of schools and attend to absenteeism in rural health facilities.

`We have brought down the gap and are working to narrow it down further,` he said.