Paucity of funds: ‘AJK has smaller development budget than Pindi’

AJK had an annual budget of Rs12 billion which is less than the garrison city of Rawalpindi

RAWALPINDI: The annual development budget allotted for Rawalpindi is more than the budget allotted for the entirety of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) region.

This was stated by AJK Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider while addressing lawyers at the District Bar Association (DBA) in Rawalpindi on Saturday.

To emphasise this point, he said that AJK had an annual budget of Rs12 billion which is less than the annual development budget for the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

Despite the paucity of funds, he announced that his government would provide DBA Rs1 million for the welfare of lawyers.

Furthermore, Farooq said that he had tried to promote meritocracy in the province.

He added that his government inducted 4,000 school teachers all on merit. cabinet.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 8^th, 2017.