FOR over a decade, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has been under PTI rule, not because of genuine public mandate, but because of engineered continuity.
Promises of ‘tabdeeli’ have long given way to political stagnation, weakening institutions and scandals that multiply unchecked. Governance has faltered at every level, public resources have been mismanaged and the province’s people bear the brunt of policies that were meant to empower them but instead exploited them. What was sold as transformation has revealed itself as a cautionary tale: KP was never truly empowered, it was used.
The tragedy of KP is not just that a party failed, failures happen in politics. The tragedy is that this failure was protected, prolonged and repeatedly installed despite glaring incompetence, financial mismanagement and institutional decay. From 2013 to 2025, PTI ruled KP uninterruptedly, each time returning through an invisible cushion of support from the powers that mattered. Even when performance indicators nosedived, scandals exploded and government projects turned into cautionary tales, KP remained the controlled political playground of one party. This artificial continuity robbed KP of accountability, alternative governance and the fresh political competition every province needs.
The biggest myth sold to the people was that PTI had transformed KP institutions. The reality is the opposite. The province’s institutional backbone, police, health, local government, public financial management, stands weaker today than it did thirteen years ago. Police reforms celebrated in the early years collapsed under political interference. Local government, once the most empowered in Pakistan, was starved of funds and finally dismantled. Hospitals and BHUs show the same shortages of doctors, medicine and equipment as a decade ago, despite claims of a health revolution. And the exchequer is burdened with record circular debt, unpaid salaries and a development budget slashed to historic lows.
But nothing reflects KP’s governance collapse more vividly than its scandals, each bigger than the last, each buried under political cover. The Peshawar BRT, heralded as a flagship project, remains the most controversial mega-scheme in Pakistan’s recent memory. Initially approved at Rs 49 billion, its cost ballooned to over Rs 71 billion and independent reviews estimate the real expenditure crossed Rs 100 billion when counting redesigns, delays and operational subsidies. The project faced 32 design changes, dozens of missing documentation segments and repeated NAB inquiries, none allowed to reach conclusion. BRT survives on loans, its debt piling up year after year. There is no plan to clear it, only more borrowing, leaving KP to bear an ever-heavier financial burden, turning into a financial sinkhole rather than a model of urban mobility.
The Kohistan Development Scandal further exposed the rot. Billions were allocated for infrastructure, hydel projects and ‘development packages’ in Upper and Lower Kohistan, but an audit revealed ghost schemes, non-existent roads and funds siphoned off through politically connected contractors. The Rs 40 billion corruption story in the hydropower sector, including irregularities in the 84MW Gorkin-Matiltan project highlighted how the energy dream was turned into a cash cow for cronies. Millions were paid without work done, contracts were awarded without bidding and the project remains incomplete after 7 years.
Equally damning was the Malakand Forest Royalty Scam, involving nearly Rs 3 billion, where payments meant for local communities were misappropriated. Even more alarming was the Sehat Card scandal, with allegations that insurance premiums exceeded realistic actuarial estimates by billions. Hospitals complained of delayed reimbursements, while the provincial government quietly diverted funds meant for patients. Add to this the Billion Tree Tsunami, initially celebrated globally but later hit by internal inquiries highlighting inflated numbers, missing plantations and contractor fraud running into Rs 4-5 billion. And then came the silence, no accountability, no prosecution, no recovery.
The common thread in all these scandals was political protection. Whenever accountability approached, invisible shields appeared. NAB inquiries were transferred, audits buried and whistleblowers silenced. KP became a governance black hole, not because of lack of resources, but because of a system built on immunity. The people of KP deserve far better. They have suffered the longest war, the hardest displacement and the most difficult economic conditions. Yet instead of stability, they were handed an experiment that treated governance as optional and political engineering as destiny. Thirteen years of one-party rule have produced neither prosperity nor institutional strength. Instead, KP stands today with one of the highest unemployment rates, thousands of closed schools, underfunded healthcare and unpaid government dues. The province’s finances are so fragile that development spending in 2023-24 dropped by over 60 percent and salaries of teachers, doctors and civil servants are routinely delayed.
KP must break free from controlled politics and return to genuine democratic competition. No province can progress when elections are engineered or when one party is structurally favoured for over a decade. The first priority is restoring institutional autonomy, civil administration, police, local governments, education, health, procurement and accountability bodies must be insulated from political and security interference. KP’s finances also demand transparent restructuring, with independent audits of BRT, Sehat Card, Billion Tree Tsunami, Kohistan, Malamjabba, hydropower and other mega-projects and recovery of misused funds. Governance must refocus on functioning schools, hospitals, policing and municipal services. KP’s people deserve free choice, real performance and a future not shaped by manipulation.
—The writer is PhD in Political Science, and visiting faculty at QAU Islamabad.
