PESHAWAR: Annual budget for 22 public sector universities, out of 32 universities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been approved for the fiscal year 2022-23 while the budget of the remaining 10 universities would also be approved by the end of the current month.

The budget has been approved in the meeting held in the Governor House, chaired by acting Governor Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani and Provincial Minister for Higher Education Kamran Bangash.

It is pertinent to mention here that due to various reasons, the budget of most public sector universities could not be approved before the beginning of next fiscal year due to which the universities had to face severe financial crisis and financial disorder.

In this regard, former Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Shah Farman, on the advice of his team, for the first time in June 2021 approved the budget for the fiscal year 2021-22 for all public sector universities to end this false tradition and eliminate financial disorder. Following the same procedure this year, acting Governor Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani, issued special instructions to all public sector universities to prepare budgets and present them in their respective Senate which would be implemented.

Like last year, this year too, all the universities are being given the best guidance and instructions regarding the budget, due to which the financial discipline of the universities has improved considerably, as evidenced by the fact that most of the universities are approving the budget surplus till now.

In light of the guidelines issued this year, most of the universities have also set up various funds to avoid financial deficit and unfavorable conditions which have proved to be useful for financially stabilizing the universities.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022