Out of the 70 projects, half were for the Balochistan Package with a total cost of Rs31 billion. The government also gave the go-ahead to 35 other schemes amounting to Rs139 billion, which was more than four times the value of Balochistan projects.
The government had earlier cleared some projects for the development of Balochistan but some of the schemes could not take off due to financial crunch. The government will borrow Rs36 billion from the international community to finance these projects, said an official of the Planning Commission.
The projects were taken up in a meeting of the Central Development Working Party — a body which approves development schemes. The meeting was chaired by Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Dr Nadeem-ul-Haq, apparently a reformist. Last month, he let the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council approve Rs617 billion worth of development projects.
With the approval of 70 projects, the total size of development schemes has hit the 1,500 mark with a total cost of Rs3.4 trillion, which is more than the size of combined budgets of federal and provincial governments.
The government is facing a serious financial crunch and is finding it difficult to even finance ongoing projects. On the eve the of federal budget in June last year, the government allocated Rs280 billion for financing federal development projects, an amount not sufficient to meet the entire needs. Later on, the development budget was revised downwards to Rs140 billion.
Planning Commission officials told The Express Tribune that most of these projects were pushed by the presidency and the Prime Minister’s Secretariat and the commission was not provided an opportunity to technically evaluate the projects’ working papers. Official sources confirmed that the meeting was only called for projects under the Balochistan Package but it also approved other schemes.
“I admit there is a need to rationalise the Public Sector Development Programme but we cannot impede the development process due to dearth of funds,” said Dr Nadeem-ul-Haq while talking to The Express Tribune. He said CDWP meetings are necessary to hold dialogue with stakeholders. Haq said the meeting was called to approve projects for the Balochistan Package and “one thing can be said with certainty that today Balochistan was counted.”
Published in The Express Tribune, January 22nd, 2011.
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