Afghanistan, June 14 -- Pakistan's federal government continues to deny adequate funding to the country's merged tribal districts, perpetuating decades of marginalization and underdevelopment. These regions continue to struggle with basic infrastructure and essential services, exposing the chronic disregard that has long defined federal policy toward peripheral areas. The neglect reflects not only budgetary shortfalls but deeper issues of political bias, institutional dysfunction, and misplaced priorities.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's finance adviser, Muzzammil Aslam, recently exposed the scale of inequity in funding. The merged tribal districts were allocated Rs70 billion under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), yet only Rs34 billion...