Legislators of the NWFP Assembly on Friday called for more participation of the parliamentarians in discussing important public matters particularly budgetary process of the province. The briefing session for this purpose was organised under the auspices of Consumer Rights Commission of Pakistan (CRCP) as an implementing partner of "Strengthening National and Provincial Governance (SNGPLG) Project."
The objective of the session was to identify strengths and weaknesses in the budget-making process and share the findings with legislative stakeholders so that they could be got informed about initiatives to strengthen parliamentary performance vis-à-vis budget.
Opposition MPAs, including Anwar Kamal Khan Marwat, Nasreen Khattak, Semi Mahmood Jan and Farah Aqil Shah, while from the government Dr Mohammad Zakir Shah attended the session. Besides, journalists, government officials and activists of the civil society organisations also attended the session.
Speaking on the occasion, Anwar Kamal Khan Marwat, parliamentary leader of the PML (N) in the NWFP Assembly, said as the budget making is difficult task and without consultation with the public representatives it has become concern of the bureaucracy.
In case of NWFP, he said that the case is totally different as the provincial receipts are only 10 percent of the total budget and it depends on the mercy of the federal government for the remaining huge 90 percent.
He lamented the distribution formula of federal divisible pool, from which 63 percent goes to the federal government while the remaining 37 percent left for the provinces.
Furthermore, he also complained of the lack of planning as most of it goes to the projects initiated on the special directives of the chief executive of the province.
He informed the participants that in past, there were used to be nominal directives for specific purposes. But, this year, he added that 550 directives of the chief minister have been included in the provincial budget.
He also alleged that financial non-discipline is reigning in all departments of the province as the departments are maintaining only 10 percent financial discipline.
Nasreen Khattak, a PPP-Sherpao MPA said that budget based on two kind of indicator, which are social and bench marks, however, the budget prepared by the provincial government this year was totally devoid of it.
She also complained of the lack of opportunity in holding discussion on the budget.
Farah Aqil Shah of ANP alleged that the provincial government is not giving any heed to the problems confronting to the womenfolk, adding that no special fund has been kept in the budget for the women development sector.
Dr Mohammad Zakir Shah, who was representing the provincial government, acknowledged that consultation of the legislators and judicious distribution of the resources is the basic requirements of the budget.
Semi Mahmood Jan of PML (Q) was although agreed with the contentions of constraints on debate, but, she said that women legislators are playing their due role. She said that achievement of the net-profit on hydel generation is the constitutional right of the province.
She said that although the government had retrieved itself from the clutches of IMF but finding escape from the World Bank.
Comments
Comments are closed.