Civil society discusses shortcomings of new budget

The civil society gathered for a conference titled ‘Civil Society Oversight on Budget’, to discuss their reservations over the recently issued budget, on Wednesday.

The event was organised by ActionAid Pakistan and Centre for Peace and Democracy Initiatives (CPDA) to highlight the ‘negligence’ shown towards areas of public concern.

The participants were of the view that the budget fails to address poverty and food scarcity in the country. And development related allocations were suppressed in favour of other undeserving sectors which was ‘obscure and unfair’.

Establishment of Farmer Consumer Groups was also urged, through which perspectives of poor farmers could be incorporated into the budget.

Aftab Alam, a speaker on agriculture and food rights said, “There is an urgent need to announce a quota for poor farmers in National and Provincial Assemblies. He further said that budget should finance women and small farmers and recommended immediate promotion of small industry.

Azhar Lashari, who spoke on Community Budgeting said, “Public opinion on budget making is never sought and similarly coordination among various development organisations working on education, health and agriculture is also lacking.”

“These issues should be promoted by the civil society,” he added.

The Dean of Nust Business School, Dr Ashfaq Hassan Khan warned that the government would be left with no other option but to apply Value Added Tax to allure external funding.

Another speaker Shoaib Suddle, ex Inspector General Police called for addressing the issues such as corruption to get the best out of the economy. “Recruitment should be done on merit, training should make them thorough professionals and promotions should only be done on performance,” he said talking about the police force.

Another speaker stressed on the need to plan in order to come out of the ‘debt quagmire’. “IMF and World Bank should be asked to write off loans and instead of going deeper in, we should plan to come out of the debt trap,” he said.

The conference was also attended by poor farmers, experts on economy, finance and agriculture.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 24^th, 2010.