Punjab allocates 35% budget to eliminate disparity

Minister says policy aimed at ensuring inclusive growth

LAHORE: Around 35% of the budget has been allocated for eliminating inter-district disparity in Punjab, said provincial Finance Minister Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakht.

"This policy is aimed at ensuring inclusive growth so that all the people can equally benefit," he added.

Addressing a seminar at the Government College University on Friday on the participation of higher education institutions in inclusive growth in Pakistan, he said that the provincial departments had been instructed to spend the budget for backward areas on the development of the same localities.

"This budget will not be utilised for the development work in any other area," he added.

He disclosed that around one-third of the population resides in southern Punjab but only 17% of the budget was allocated for the southern districts before the 2018 elections.

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The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has introduced a new development model in the province and public sector investment has been made in areas that are usually ignored by the private sector, Bakht remarked.

"Meanwhile, dependency on the private sector is being increased in other sectors," he said. The incumbent government has introduced a provincial growth strategy and more than 88 indicators have been identified that directly influence the GDP.

As far as the participation of higher education institutions in national development is concerned, the policy formulation process would remain incomplete without the feedback of research scholars, he added.

The minister said that educational experts are being consulted to deal with administrative affairs.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2019.

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