K-P Assembly okays only four demands for grants worth Rs6b

Time-consuming speeches bar members from taking up 55 other demands

PESHAWAR: Of a total of 59 demands for grants, only four were approved by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly during its budget session on Tuesday, with most of the time used up in speeches as well as complaints from opposition members and their clarification from the government side.

As against a total outlay of Rs603 billion for the fiscal year 2017-18, the four approved demands for grants were only worth Rs6 billion, related to the K-P Assembly, administration, finance, and planning and development departments.

Missing agenda prompts K-P opposition walkout

The opposition and the government members of the assembly withdrew all their ‘cut motions’ on the demands for grants after their concerns were properly addressed by the respective departments.

During the assembly proceedings, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) lawmaker Fakhar Azam called for increasing salaries of officers in Grade 17 and above, reminding Finance Minister Muzaffar Said of his promise made in the budget speech of FY2015-16.

Replying to Azam’s demand, K-P Chief Minister Pervez Khattak asked the concerned officers to surrender their official vehicles and residences if they wanted an increase in their salaries.

Budget 2017-18: K-P fails to allocate 30% for districts

The chief minister said that a committee – under the supervision of Qaumi Watan Party’s Sikandar Khan Sherpao – had been working on the issue and it had been decided that the officials would return their vehicles and residences for a raise in salaries.

He added that the departments were asked to send details of official vehicles and bungalows allotted to the officers, but they had only sent details of the vehicles, not the bungalows.

“I would only give my approval when both the things are surrendered,” he said, adding that the mentioned officers wanted to enjoy all the perks and privileges along with hefty salaries “which is not possible”.

34.5% for ADP in Rs603 billion K-P budget

Apart from the increase in salaries, Azam also criticised the Planning and Development Department for violating the K-P Local Government Act 2013 by allocating lesser than 30 per cent funds from the Annual Development Programme (ADP) for district governments.

“Only 22 per cent funds of the ADP have been allocated for district governments which is a clear violation of the K-P local government act,” he said. “It seems the government is fed up with its own local governments.”

Adviser to the Chief Minister for Planning and Development Mian Khaliqur Rehman could not give a satisfactory reply to the criticism.

Budget 2017-18: Opposition divided over new taxes for professionals

Awami National Party (ANP) parliamentary leader in the house Sardar Hussain Babak raised the issue of the rapidly increasing throw-forward liability – funds needed to complete existing development projects.

“We left Rs125 billion throw-forward and now it is worth Rs3,000 billion, which includes Rs2,400 billion throw-forward related to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects for which only Rs1 million has been allocated,” he said, adding that the K-P had lost its CPEC case.

Babak said the K-P government was trying to get credit for signing agreements worth Rs2,400 billion for 84 projects under the CPEC, but the ADP lacked allocations for the projects consuming billions of rupees.

Education budget up by 15% in K-P

Responding to Babak, the chief minister said, “CPEC is not an umbrella scheme where you can fit in any project.”

The federal government kept K-P in the dark for two years over CPEC, the CM said, adding that after two years when issues of the western corridor surfaced the K-P government launched its efforts to get its share in the project.

“We took our 100 projects to China where we inked memorandums of understanding with Chinese firms for 84 projects, which would be purely executed on investment basis, and not a single rupee would be spent by the province,” he said, adding that the projects would take time.

Budget debate: K-P govt draws ire of lawmakers

Responding to criticism from the opposition members that the government was taking loans on interest which is illegitimate and un-Islamic, Khattak replied, “The banking system in the country is controlled by the federal government and the provincial government of K-P has to follow it.”

Furthermore, the Jamaat-e-Islami was grilled for ‘hijacking’ the European Union-supported Community Driven Local Development (CDLD) project. It was decided during the session that the schemes under the CDLD project would be inaugurated by the elected representatives of the province, and the inauguration board would carry the name of the K-P government, not a political party.