Former Punjab chief minister Pervaiz Elahi's released Rs 500 million for developmental projects in the PML-Q constituencies and the money was drawn from the funds allocated for Lahore Ring Road phase II, Punjab civil secretariat sources disclosed to Business Recorder here on Thursday.
They said Rs 500 million were released between October 1 and November 17 to the MPAs belonging to the then ruling party PML-Q. "It was done on the direction of former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and the Punjab Finance department released the funds after the Planning and Development Board Punjab (PDBP) issued a advise on the matter. The money was planned for developmental projects, including water and sanitation and roads," they added.
They also disclosed among the constituencies that benefited from Rs 500 million fall in the districts: Faisalabad, Kasur, Khanewal, Lahore, Muzaffarabad, Rawalpindi and Sargodha.
They said the funds for the developmental projects were drawn from the money allocated for unapproved schemes of the Lahore Ring Road and the Punjab government had allocated Rs 10 billion for it. "In addition to Rs 500 million, in the past the Pervaiz Elahi's government had diverted around Rs 1 billion for other schemes from the Lahore Ring Road funds. Since the Punjab treasury was short of funds to development projects in the PML-Q constituencies, the former Punjab Chief Minister used the funds that was intended for the unapproved schemes of the Lahore Ring Road," they added.
They also disclosed that many other such directives issued by the former Punjab Chief Minister were pending with the Punjab Finance Department. They said it seems the former Punjab Chief Minister was preparing grounds for the forthcoming general elections and helping his legislators to secure votes in their areas. The first phase of the Lahore Ring Road, which involved 43 km long and six-lane carriageway was launched in 2004 and its completion time is by the end of December of this year. Sources said that Rs 19 billion were allocated for the first phase of which Rs 9 billion has been spent.