Peshawar District Council passes Rs11.2b surplus budget

Opposition slams insufficient funds for development projects

PESHAWAR: Amid vociferous complaints from the opposition benches of insufficient money allocated for development projects and a cut in their powers and authority, the Peshawar district council on Tuesday passed a Rs11.2 billion budget.

The budget document had been tabled by District Nazim Asim Khan, who termed it a surplus budget wherein special efforts were made to develop the city and to complete ongoing projects.

The opposition, though, would have none of it and pointed out how most of the budget was just dedicated to paying salaries and other non-development expenditure while a mere Rs700 million, or just 6.25 per cent of the total, has been allocated for developmental expenditures.

Acknowledging the cut in the budget for the district government, Asim said that he will raise the issue with the provincial government.

But soon, the district nazim was extolling the projects they will initiate in the current fiscal year including the construction of the Rs20.5 million rehabilitation centre for drug addicts on Dalzak Road.

The Peshawar District Nazim further said that they had allocated Rs50 million to construct a new building for the Municipal Inter-college near Shahi Bagh. He said that the building has been designed in such a manner that it can accommodate a large number of students.

To encourage students, Asim said that they will hand out laptops and Rs35,000 as cash rewards for position-holding students of government schools.

With the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government focusing on health, the district nazim said that they are doubling the budget for purchasing medicine for government-run hospitals to Rs40.8 million.

Noting that the city is facing a severe issue of traffic, arising in part from haphazard parking and the lack of parking space, Asim promised to build a multi-storey parking plaza in the city with support from the Peshawar Development Authority (PDA).

“This is a landmark project of the district government which will be completed at the cost of Rs0.3 billion,” he claimed, adding that the plaza will be built in the Namak Mandi area and will take around eight months to complete.

He hoped that the plaza will not only help control traffic in the area but would also support the local food street.

“This will be the first-ever such parking plaza to be built by the district government and will also help the city earn millions annually,” claimed the district nazim.

The leader of the Opposition in the District Council Zahir Advocate, who later held a news conference at the Peshawar Press Club along with other members of the district council, accused the provincial government of leaving the local government officials powerless.

To protest this, he said that the opposition had decided to boycott the budget session of the district council.

“The district nazim is now little more than a glorified show-piece,” he alleged, adding, “He has no power or authority due to which the basic spirit of local government has been damaged.”

Zahir also criticized that the low allocation for the development budget, noting that it was insufficient for launching any mega project in the city nor could members allocate funds from it for development projects at the village level.

“Every town member, if provided, will get just Rs1.5 million with which they cannot even pave a single street,” Zahir complained.

“We were voted into the council by the people and now they are expecting us to provide them with development projects at the village and neighbourhood level,” he said.

The leader of the opposition also criticised the allocation of Rs20 million as discretionary fund for the district nazim and Rs1.5 million for the naib nazim, terming it contrary to the austerity policy pushed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) who have already abolished such funds for the president, the prime minister, and members of the national assembly.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 26^th, 2018.