Solution amid chaos: Charsadda district passes Rs440m budget

Was approved in second round after protesting opposition returned to the house

CHARSADDA: Charsadda district government passed an annual budget of Rs440 million in a district assembly session on Monday.

The session was chaired by speaker Musawar Shah while district nazim Fahad Riaz presented the budget.

However, it was not passed in the first go as opposition members had walked out from the session. Later, on the request of district councillors from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Qaumi Watan Party, they joined the session and the budget was passed with the support of opposition members.



The budget includes Rs110 million in discretionary funds for the district nazim. An amount of roughly Rs17.52 million has been allocated for education and communication; Rs8.76 million has been allocated for health and sanitation; Rs6.57 million has been allocated for agriculture, women empowerment, and sports. The budget also proposed Rs5.5 million for each directly elected district member, and Rs2 million for indirectly elected members – those on reserved seats.

PTI and QWP-led district government was faced with a challenging situation when the budget session was postponed Thursday night due to internal differences among PTI district members.

A district member of the ruling PTI government told The Express Tribune if the district nazim fails to deliver what he promised, they will not hesitate to bring a no-confidence motion forward against him.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 1^st,  2015.