The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has not released money to the local bodies out of  their Rs63 billion share in the development funds in around two years, leaving the system paralysed, media reports said.

The members of two-tier local government system of tehsil and village and neighbourhood councils came into powers after elections, which were conducted in two phases on December 19, 2021, and March 27, 2022, reports Dawn News.

“However, since installation of the local government system, the provincial government has not released the funds allocated to local bodies through Provincial Finance Commission,” sources told the Pakistani newspaper.

They said that under the PFC award, the two-tier local bodies had a share of Rs37 billion in the budget for fiscal year 2022-23. The share of local government is 20 per cent of the total provincial Annual Development Programme (ADP).

Sources told Dawn News that the share of local bodies in the budget for current financial was Rs26 billion including Rs15.6 billion for tehsil councils and Rs10.4 billion for village and neighbourhood councils.

Mardan city Mayor  Himayatullah Mayar told the newspaper: " The provincial government has denied our share in the provincial ADP."