ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing committee on Cabinet Secretariat approved Rs601.649 million for seven development projects including three ongoing Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) projects to the tune of Rs335.899 million and four new projects at the cost of Rs265.75 million of the Establishment Division.

The committee, after scrutinising and hearing the justification of relevant departmental representatives, approved the PSDP demands for the financial year 2023-24. The committee was apprised that the aforesaid projects related to the upgradation of infrastructure, construction of facilities and solarisation at the National Centre for Rural Development Islamabad and National Institutes of Management at Peshawar, Lahore, and Karachi.

The committee postponed scrutiny of schemes unapproved at the ministry level till its next meeting. The committee directed relevant departments to present full justification of the proposed PSDP projects in its next meeting. The committee while scrutinising PSDP proposals of Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation opined that Pakistan has immense tourism potential which had not been properly exploited and investing national resources unwisely in this regard would not be a public service.

MoPDSI issues guidelines for PSDP 23-24

The committee directed the Cabinet Division being the controlling division of the PTDC and the Management of the Tourism Corporation to bring a comprehensive presentation on the six new PSDP proposals of PTDC before the committee in its next meeting.

Later, the committee scrutinized and approved three PSDP proposals of the Cabinet Division worth Rs90.04 billion. The committee was apprised that Rs90 billion have been demanded for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Achievement Program, whereas, Rs16.954 million and Rs23 million would go for strengthening of National Archives and a marketing campaign for the Facilitation of Tourism in Pakistan, respectively.

The committee while discussing The Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill, 2021 decided to replace the words federal government or government occurring in section 3, 4 and 19(3) of the amendment bill with words Minister In-charge. The Committee was of the view that the public representatives were answerable to the people thus, policy decision-making should remain with them instead of the public servants.

The meeting was attended Muhammad Sajjad, Shahnaz Saleem Malik, Mir Ghulam Ali Talpur, Mussarat Rafiq Mahesar, Muhammad Abu Bakar, Syed Mehmood Shah, and Mohsin Dawar. Special secretary, Establishment Division, additional secretary, Cabinet Division, and senior officers of concerned departments were also present.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023