{"id":5321,"date":"2026-07-09T07:38:55","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T07:38:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/?p=5321"},"modified":"2026-07-09T07:38:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T07:38:55","slug":"kp-chief-minister-urges-pm-to-reconsider-withdrawal-of-tax-exemption-for-merged-districts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/?p=5321","title":{"rendered":"KP Chief Minister Urges PM to Reconsider Withdrawal of Tax Exemption for Merged Districts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>PESHAWAR:<\/strong> Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister <strong>Sohail Afridi<\/strong> has written to Prime Minister <strong>Shehbaz Sharif<\/strong>, urging the federal government to reconsider its decision to withdraw tax exemptions for the merged tribal districts and the Malakand Division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In his letter, the chief minister said the proposed withdrawal of tax exemptions has caused widespread public concern. He argued that the issue is not taxation itself, but the federal government&#8217;s departure from commitments made during the merger of the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Afridi said the merger was carried out with clear promises of financial, constitutional, and institutional support from the federal government, many of which have yet to be fulfilled. He added that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been bearing the financial burden of the merger on its own, while the province has still not received its agreed share under the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award for the merged districts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The chief minister noted that the province continues to spend heavily on rebuilding infrastructure and rehabilitating areas affected by terrorism. He also said that the closure of trade routes with Afghanistan has severely damaged the economy of the merged districts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Afridi, the tax exemptions were originally introduced to encourage investment, create employment opportunities, and promote economic development in the merged districts and Malakand Division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He further stated that although the federal government had formed a committee to review the proposed tax measures, the committee failed to produce any final recommendations. Despite this, the decision to end the tax exemptions was made without consulting the provincial government or other stakeholders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Afridi warned that such decisions could have negative consequences for peace and stability in border regions. He also pointed out that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly had unanimously passed a resolution calling for the proposed tax measures to be postponed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In his letter, the chief minister urged the federal government to immediately suspend the decision and maintain the tax exemptions until the commitments made to the merged districts are fulfilled and conditions in the region improve significantly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi has written to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, urging the federal government to reconsider its decision to withdraw tax..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/437695_399871_updates-1.jpg",700,400,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/437695_399871_updates-1-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/437695_399871_updates-1-300x171.jpg",300,171,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/437695_399871_updates-1.jpg",700,400,false],"large":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/437695_399871_updates-1.jpg",700,400,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/437695_399871_updates-1.jpg",700,400,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/437695_399871_updates-1.jpg",700,400,false]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/?cat=3\" rel=\"category\">Pakistan<\/a>","tag_info":"Pakistan","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5321"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5323,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5321\/revisions\/5323"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}