Need for a rethink

According to a press report, the government is about to close the Khushhal Pakistan Fund, set up less than three years ago under public-private partnership in support of Pakistan Khushhal Programme to promote poverty reduction schemes in the less developed rural as well as urban areas of the country.
It is certainly not a good decision to scrap the entire programme considering that Khushhal Pakistan was aimed at uplifting the less advantaged sections of population. It comprised schemes that sought to provide people with such basic facilities as clean drinking water, sanitation, health care and education besides farm-to-market roads. It also included income generation projects. It is sad, indeed, to see schemes being aborted that were aimed at bringing a measure of betterment in the lives of the poor and the needy.
Terminating the Khushhal Pakistan Fund at this point in time will lead to a huge amount of wastage both in terms of monetary investments and the efforts that have gone into getting thousands of development schemes off the ground.
Already Rs 4 billion have been spent on various projects in three provinces while many more are in the works. About 7,500 small infrastructure schemes are nearing completion in Balochistan that are to benefit nearly a million people.
An additional Rs 100 million have been earmarked for every district of that least developed province of Pakistan. Also underway are some 2,500 schemes in the NWFP and Sindh, while 6,000 schemes are ready to be launched in Punjab.
With the government going ahead with its current plans, more than 10,000 projects geared towards poverty reduction and infrastructure strengthening will come to naught. Needless to say, if only the ongoing schemes are left unfinished a lot of money already spent will go to waste.
Add to this the fact that as per the programme's terms of reference, the government will have to reimburse 30 percent of the operational costs to partner organisations even in cases where the agreed schemes never took off, and it becomes obvious that a huge amount - an estimated Rs 51.5 million - is going to go down the drain. Such wastage is unacceptable.
It is true that the government is facing a serious cash crunch. At times like these, development projects are the first to come under the axe since those affected are unorganised people incapable of raising any voice of protest.
This line of action may bring a short-term respite to the government, but in the longer-term perspective it is harmful for the affected populations as well as the overall developmental process.
There can be no meaningful development if it fails to bring about equitable use of resources and to create greater economic opportunities for the economically lower strata of population. It is imperative, therefore, that the PPP-led coalition government should rethink its decision.
It must try and do all it can to retain a large part of the Khushhal Pakistan Programme schemes even if it wants now to rechristen them as People's Works Programme. At least it should keep all health care and education projects on track.