Rs4.3b budget approved by Haripur district council

Maqsood Jadoon brought in from jail for oath taking at session

HARIPUR: Haripur district council passed the first salary and non-salary budget for 14 departments of the local government for fiscal year 2015-16 on Friday. The salary and non-salary budget of Rs4.3 billion was presented by Haripur district nazim Adil Islam earlier, on Wednesday. Islam was unable to attend Friday’s session as he was in Peshawar, attending the Provincial Finance Award meeting.

Fiery start

As the budget proceedings commenced, opposition leader from Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Sahibzada Hamid Shah, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s members, Shahid Amin Khan, Asif Ali Jah and a few others pointed out department heads were absent from the session. They said since the budget was for 14 government departments, its heads must be present in the house.

This led naib nazim Agha Shabbir to suspend the proceedings for 30 minutes and to call all department heads over the telephone. The session was resumed after their arrival. Shabbir asked all officials to ensure their presence in all future sessions.

The budget breakdown

After some cut motions by Sahibzada Hamid Shah in the non-salary budget of different departments, the house unanimously approved
the budget.

Of the total, the education department will receive Rs322.2 million for salary and Rs95 million for non-salary expenditure. The health department will receive Rs24.1 million for non-salary and Rs271.5 million for salary expenses. The sports, culture and tourism will receive Rs0.8 million for non-salary and Rs2.05 million for salary expenditure.

For local government administrative costs, Rs72 million for salary and Rs4.05 million for non-salary was allocated. Communication and Works department will receive Rs46 million for salary and Rs2.02 million for non-salary expenses. The public health engineering department was allotted Rs92 million for salary and Rs157 million for non-salary expenses and the agriculture department was allocated Rs36.05 million for salary and Rs5.7 million for non-salary expenditures.

Further proceedings

The convener also administered an oath to district council member Shah Maqsood Atif Munsif Jadoon who had been arrested on charges of opening fire on the convoy of Javed Jadoon, another councillor. The attack had killed all six guards and left Jadoon seriously injured. He was brought in an armoured personnel carrier from Haripur jail and was sent back after the session.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10^th, 2015.