The Finance Committee of the Sindh Cabinet in its meeting on Wednesday approved major grants, deferred some funding requests for lack of details and rejected a request from the Sports and Youth Affairs Department for a grant of Rs2 million from non-development funds to organise a football championship in Malir PS-89.
The committee directed the Sports and Youth Affairs Department to hold the tournament utilising allocated budget and stated that any funding shortfall at the end of the year would be reviewed separately.
The meeting, held with Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani and Home and Law Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar in the chair, was attended by the chief secretary, finance secretary, secretaries of all concerned departments and other senior officials.
The committee approved a grant of Rs115 million from non-ADP funds for the ongoing construction of the Government Degree College at Ghorabari, Thatta District, and sanctioned Rs248 million for the installation of water storage tanks along with solar-powered pumping stations at Ex-Nara Canal, Khipro, Sanghar District.
A one-time grant of Rs45 million was approved to cover transportation and installation costs of agricultural machinery gifted by China to the federal government, which included Sindh's share. The ministers expressed reservations over this additional expense, directing that in future such gifts should be received directly at Karachi Port to avoid unnecessary costs.
The committee also approved a one-time payment of Rs141 million to settle dues of retired employees of the Sindh Seed Corporation in compliance with a court order, with the condition that no further grants would be sought for this purpose in future.
A grant of Rs300 million from non-development funds was sanctioned for the repatriation of illegal Afghans residing in Pakistan.
However, a request for grant funding for the Langar Khana (free meal facility) at the shrine of Sachal Sarmast was deferred until a detailed report, including information on donations received at the shrine, is submitted.
Likewise, the request from Sindh Solid Waste Management Board for Rs15 billion was also deferred until submission of complete documentation and detailed justification.
The ministers directed all departmental secretaries to ensure that future cases presented before the committee are backed by complete working papers and detailed data so that the committee can prepare its recommendations for the cabinet based on full facts.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ