K-P to build 5,000 houses this year

Advisor to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Chief Minister on Finance Muzammil Aslam, while presenting the 100-day performance of the provincial government, has said K-P would build 5,000 houses this year.

He said that the federal budget was the worst of its kind and no other budget could be as infamous as this one.

This year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had set a surplus target of Rs95 billion for K-P and the province hoped to surpass the target, he said, adding that he would request other provinces to also show their performance.

He further said the Chief Minister and his cabinet had not travelled anywhere except Islamabad and that all official helicopters had been grounded to save money, and that, although the federal government was supposed to give K-P around Rs300 billion worth of funds, it had been announced in the budget that there would be a development allocation of Rs1,400 billion which had been  reduced to Rs 1,100 billion before the budget was passed.

Addressing a press conference, he said the K-P government’s focus had been on good governance and accountability, adding that K-P had started a project with the World Bank for education and that it was a fact that three budgets had been presented in the province within the first 100 days and these had not been mini-budgets.

“On May 10, the budget of the previous government was presented. On May 24, the budget was presented before the federal budget. We had passed the budget in the first week of June,” he said.

Aslam further stated that K-P currently had over 300,000 tons of wheat stock. “We are going to provide solar plants to one million people. Before the Eid holidays, Rs900 million had been released to municipal corporations. K-P has also restored free treatment under the health card,” he said.

He claimed treatment for 258,909 individuals had been covered by the health card so far, medicines worth Rs2 billion had been distributed, and that the Chief Minister resided in Peshawar and Islamabad and did not travel abroad.

He also said that, for the first time in Pakistan’s history, K-P had made it clear that the province’s budget should be presented by the province itself and, therefore, K-P had passed the budget three weeks before the federal government, that it had been claimed about the province that it was bankrupt but K-P had given a surplus revenue and thus saved money, that the pension bill is increasing and K-P had saved Rs20 billion and allocated it to the pension fund, and that, to address the law and order situation, the provincial government had allocated Rs7 billion immediately upon taking office.

During Ramazan, he said, K-P had provided Rs10,000 per deserving family across the province while Punjab had given Rs3,000 and Sindh had distributed Rs5,000.

For programmes like ‘Ehsaas Rozgar’ and ‘Ehsaas Hunar’, he said, K-P had allocated Rs15 billion and that, for the first time in history, the government would build 5,000 houses in the province this year.

“We have purchased wheat worth Rs20 billion. We have 300,000 tons of wheat stock. We are introducing a scheme and will install 2 kVA solar panels in 100,000 households”, he added.