Funding crunch stalls ex-FATA uplift

Senate sub-committee assures its support in getting funds for the province

PESHAWAR:

Development projects in the newly merged tribal districts are facing a delay due to non-availability of funds.

This was revealed during a visit of the sub-committee of the Standing Committee of Senate on States and Frontier Regions on Thursday.

The sub-committee assured its support to the government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) in taking funds for the province, especially the newly merged districts (NMD) stopped by the federal government.

The committee convener Senator Dr Sania Nishter and Senator Shameem Afridi suggested e-tendering, biometric attendance for government employees and introduction of GIS system for better monitoring of schemes.

Members of the sub-committee were briefed about the NMDs development portfolio procedure and utilization of funds.

Chief Secretary Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry, Additional Chief Secretary Zubair Qureshi and other officials were present on the occasion.

ACS Zubair Qureshi briefed the committee about the developmental schemes, expenditures, monitoring, preparation and mechanism in the merged districts.

He informed the committee that due to shortage of funds, the government was unable to carry out development work in the merged areas.

The Senate body assured to raise the funds issue faced by the provincial government in NMDs on a priority basis.

Background

Last month the caretaker government decided to take up the non-release of provincial funds under various heads with the federal government in order to solve the issue of fiscal deficit.

In this regard an important meeting to discuss and review the current economic situation of the province was held here with the Caretaker Chief Minister Muhammad Azam Khan in the chair.

The forum was briefed on the financial issues related to federation including share of the province under National Finance Commission Award, arrears of the province under net hydel profit, food security of the province, oil and gas royalty, issues regarding water resources and other related matters.

Advisor to Chief Minister on Finance Himayatullah Khan, Chief Secretary Imdadullah Bosal, Additional Chief Secretary Ikramullah Khan, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Amjad Ali Khan, administrative secretaries of departments concerned and other relevant officials attended the meeting.

The forum held a detailed discussion on the prevailing economic situation and took a detailed review of the proposed strategy to take up the issues with the federal government effectively.

To put an end to the financial crunch faced by the province, the finance department presented various recommendations to be taken up with the federal government which include, but not limited to, an immediate revision of the share of K-P province in the 7th NFC Award, in the context of the merger of the erstwhile FATA with the province by adding the population of 2017 census to the 7th NFC formula, strict implementation of Article 151 of the constitution by all the federating units so that no unit should take any arbitrary legislative or executive action restricting trade and interprovincial movement of goods especially wheat, immediate rehabilitation of CRBC and Gomal Zam Dam command area and construction, completion of Tank Zam Pezo Dam, Baran Dam and Kurram Tangi Dam.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 7^th, 2023.