Finance bill: PTI govt adds 42 projects to PSDP

Senate panel seeks reply on new projects in PSDP

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Planning has sought a reply from the Ministry of Planning for adding 42 projects worth Rs17 billion in the Public Sector Development Project (PSDP) after the approval of Finance Bill 2019-20.

A subcommittee of the Senate panel held a meeting at the Parliament House to take up the issue.  The session was convened and chaired by Senator Mir Kabeer Ahmed Mohammad Shahi.

The meeting was adjourned in protest over the absence of the planning minister and secretary.

Senator Shahi said the planning secretary had sent a letter stating that he would not be able to attend the meeting due to some engagement but no notice was given by the concerned minister. He noted that after the approval of budget for financial year 2019-20, the members of committees from all four provinces had said no new schemes would be added.

“It is amazing that 42 new schemes have been added to this budget,” he noted. “We were told that the book of the PSDP could not be amended. On whose orders were these projects added to the PSDP?” he questioned.

The additional secretary for planning informed the committee that after approval from the NFC, the money was from other projects was reserved for new ones.

Senator Usman Kakar inquired as to who had given the ministries the right to include projects of their own choice in the PSDP. He said that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) should take notice of this “political bribery”.

The committee sought complete details of the schemes and directed the minister and secretary concerned to apprise the body in the next meeting.

Senator Shahi said that the committee would not allow the development of Balochistan to be ignored.

Regretting that children participated in exams sitting on the floor despite the temperature of Quetta falling to minus 4 degrees, Shahi said: “If this is the case in the provincial capital, what will happen to the rest of the cities? Around 93 per cent of our people do not have the facility of gas and 88 per cent are without electricity.”

Senator Kakar said that funding of projects in Balochistan had been stopped. “This will not be tolerated,” he added.