PESHAWAR, Nov 3: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led provincial government will fulfil its commitments to complete foreign funded development projects even if it stops North Atlantic Treaty Organisation`s supplies via Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, senior functionaries told Dawn.

They said the government would stop Nato`s military and non-military supplies from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa without declining or discontinuing development assistance from international donors, including development institutions belonging to the Nato member countries.

`We don`t want to fight a war with them,` said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa minister for finance Sirajul Haq, central naib amir (vice-president) of Jamaat-iIslami.

He said the government would honour its commitments with international donors and would continue working with them to complete development projects being funded by multilateral and bilateral donor agencies.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and its allies in the provincial assembly have convened a special session of the provincial legisla-ture on Monday. They have announced to pass a `strong worded` resolution in the provincial assembly, demanding to halt Nato supplies via Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

PTI has reinforced its stand against Nato supplies with renewed vigor in protest against Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan`s chief Hakeemullah Mehsud`s killing in an American drone attack on Friday last.

This has caused some to believe the party`s tough position might compromise the development interest of people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The provincial government has outlined a development plan of Rs118 billion for the ongoing financial year. Foreign donors have promised to provide Rs35 billion of the total development outlay, including Rs30.7 billion grants and Rs4.3 billion loans.

A substantial amount of the grant money would come from the international development institutions belonging to Nato members countries.

Among them, the United Kingdom`s Department for International Development has committed to provide Rs14.8 billion, Germany`s KFW and GIZ have promised a total of Rs1.53 billion, Canada`s Canadian International Development Agency would provideRs237 million, Italy has promised to extend Rs147.7 million under its debt swap facility, and the United States Agency for International Development has planned to release Rs1.3 billion in grant to the province during the 2013-14 financial year.

Even before coming to power in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan Tehreeki-Insaaf stood for ending dependence on foreign aid and bringing in investment from overseas Pakistanis. Similarly, Jamaat-i-Islami, another component of the provincial government, has an explicit policy to break the begging bowl if voted to power.

`Those things (development projects) that are ongoing, they involve obligations and responsibilities from the two sides (international donors and the provincial government,` said Farid Paracha, a central JI leader, adding `the provincial government would fulfil their responsibilities under the signed agreements.

He, however, said the provincial government would need to formulate a policy to stop taking assistance from the international donors by tapping other available funding avenues, including investment from the overseas Pakistanis and `return of the money siphoned off` by Pakistanipoliticians and bureaucrats.

PTI has a slightly different take on the issue.

`Development assistance and differences on strategic issues are two different matters,` said Shiraz Paracha, a spokesman and media adviser to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak.

He, too, said the provincial government was not in a war with the Nato countries.

He said the government`s stand against allowing the land route for Nato supplies was based on principles. `We are not the aggressor, our peace effort has been attacked,` said Mr Paracha, adding, `the chief minister attaches significance to closely work international donors and he recently addressed a conference of foreign donor agencies` representatives in which he invited them to invest in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He said PTI believed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had suffered the most and it was the people`s right to get continued foreign assistance. Road network and schools in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the spokesman added, had ruined (as a result of USA`s war on terrorism) and now the infrastructure needed to be rebuilt.

The PTI-led provincial government, hesaid, had never considered to decline development assistance from foreign donors.

`It holds public interest supreme as has been attached significance by any government,` said Mr Paracha.

The finance minister said the government was interested in foreign funded projects and many of the schemes, he added, were launched before Nato started using Khyber Pakhtunkhwa`s land route to transport its military and non-military supplies.The provincial government, he added, had been given a recommendation to tax road usage by Nato trucks, but it did not consent to the proposal in the current financial year`s budget.

The provincial coalition government partners, said chief minister`s spokesman, would meet on Monday to discuss and evolve a joint strategy for stopping Nato supplies via Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Later, the provincial cabinet would also discuss the matter in its meeting.

Similarly, the coalition government would contact and take into confidence leaders of the opposition parties in the provincial assembly for adopting a unanimous resolution against Nato supplies in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly`s session, which is scheduled to begin on Monday afternoon.