PESHAWAR: The total volume of foreign loans acquired by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government reached a staggering Rs 809 billion during the first six months of the current fiscal year.
According to official documents released by the provincial Finance Department. These funds have been secured to finance a total of 102 ongoing development projects across the province.
The data reveals that the World Bank remains the largest creditor, providing Rs 352.5 billion for 46 different projects, closely followed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which extended Rs 351.8 billion for 44 projects.
Between July and December, the provincial government managed to repay Rs 25.56 billion in debt servicing, a figure that includes Rs 15.81 billion in principal payments and Rs 9.75 billion in interest.
Addressing the rising debt figures, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Advisor Muzammil Aslam clarified that while the current budget had estimated a loan requirement of Rs 180 billion, the Rs 809 billion figure reflects the total value of long-term agreements signed for multi-year projects.
He said that these are not new liabilities but are disbursements for existing development initiatives already in the pipeline. Despite these explanations, the sheer volume of the debt highlights the province’s heavy reliance on international financial institutions to sustain its developmental infrastructure.
