Changing priorities

The PTI government is in for a major cut in development portfolio projects

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led government is in for a major cut in the projects earlier placed in the development portfolio. According to reports, a final decision in this regard may be taken at a meeting scheduled later this month for a mid-term review of the public-sector development projects (PSDP). Government officials concede that as many as 400 ‘politically-motivated’ schemes or projects had been included in the development portfolio but they are still unable to pass the stage of the Central Development Working Party or the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council and could easily be excluded from the PSDP list.

A recent decision taken by the federal government to shelve a major power project under CPEC could well be a part of the official strategy to lessen the financial burden on the development portfolio and divert the money to the areas where it is needed the most. Islamabad had, according to a report, conveyed to Beijing during the eighth meeting of the Joint Coordination Committee of CPEC on December 20 that it was no more interested in the 1,320MW Rahim Yar Khan power project and it should be removed from the CPEC list. The government argues that since sufficient generation capacity is lined up for the next few years, pursuing the Rahim Yar Khan power project is no more feasible.

Many outside the government circles may not agree with the government’s contention about the required generation capacity in the near future. But the government has another argument as well. The Rahim Yar Khan power project was originally pushed as an imported coal-based plant by Quaid-e-Azam Thermal Company of the Punjab government. But way back in June 2016, the then government had, in a major policy decision, notified a ban on capacity addition on imported fuel, and the Rahim Yar Khan and Muzaffargarh coal-based plants had been removed from the CPEC list.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 15^th, 2019.

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