KP announces province-wide pen-down strike over Centre discrimination claims

ISLAMABAD: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi on Tuesday announced a province-wide pen-down strike for May 6, saying the move was being taken against what he described as the federal government’s discrimination against the province.

In a statement, the PTI-backed chief minister said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was facing deliberate discrimination in the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award as well as in the electricity and gas sectors.

He said emergency services would remain exempt from the strike.

Afridi also said that PTI founder Imran Khan and his wife were not being allowed medical treatment under the supervision of their personal physicians. He further said that denying the former prime minister access to his family and lawyers was inhumane and illegal.

Denying the PTI founder — who has been behind bars since August 2023 in multiple cases ranging from corruption to terrorism after his ouster via an opposition no-trust vote in April 2022 — access to family and lawyers is “inhumane and illegal,”

The chief minister has repeatedly accused the federal government of treating Khyber Pakhtunkhwa unfairly.

Earlier criticism of federal policies

On January 10, Afridi had sharply criticised federal policies and alleged discrimination against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, theft of public mandate and political victimisation of the PTI while speaking at a press conference in Hyderabad.

At that time, he said the province had not received its full share under the NFC Award, including the amount due for the merged tribal districts, and said this had caused losses of nearly Rs300 billion to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Referring to the former tribal areas, he had said commitments made for the erstwhile Fata, including Rs100 billion annually for 10 years, had not been fulfilled. According to him, only Rs130 billion had been released over three years.

The latest strike announcement comes amid the provincial government’s continued criticism of the Centre over financial allocations and resource distribution. Afridi’s latest statement again linked the dispute to the NFC Award and the supply of electricity and gas.

No further details were provided in the statement about the scope of the pen-down strike beyond the exemption for emergency services.

The announcement marks another escalation in the ongoing dispute between the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and the federal authorities over fiscal rights and the province’s share in national resources, as outlined by the chief minister in his repeated public statements.