May 26, 2003	Monday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 23,1424

Can anyone believe that development schemes involving about Rs147 million in the current fiscal year have been abandoned halfway in Sindh because of one or the other reason? Dr Hafiz Sheikh, former finance and planning minister, Sindh, who now supervises privatization and investment in Islamabad, called Sindh a “graveyard of development schemes”.

An official document “Development Endeavour—2002-03” points out that “a large number of schemes, driven by political patronage have been abandoned in midstream. Half-built buildings, unviable rural water supply schemes, schools with buildings and no teachers or only students and teachers but without school shelters, are in abundance”.

On February 26 this year, the Sindh Assembly was informed that there were 1,834 schools closed in Sindh. On March 1 this year, the Secretary Education Department informed that 2,175 schools and colleges were still without any equipment and yet every year new schemes were being added. Health department reported 225 health facilities completed upto September 2,000 were not functioning because of the non-availability of staff. In next two years, 235 additional health units would be completed but would not function.

The Planning Department is not happy with the way the 16 district governments are going ahead with new schemes of school and health facilities without realising that, “a large number of facilities are non-functional due to non-availability of funds from the budget”.

A water supply scheme in Shadadpur completed with a total amount of Rs22 million in 1992 is another example of how the planners, engineers and contractors have squandered funds and kept the 81,000 population of the small town of Sanghar district depend on brackish water even in the year 2003. Members of the Chief Minister’s Inspection Team visited Shadadpur early this year. They were briefed by members of the Shadadpur Press Club who guided them to the venue of water supply scheme.

The scheme remained non-functional for last more than 10 years because the Town Municipal Committee could not convince the citizens to acquire regular connections. Now the Town Committee has been asked to invest Rs100,000 and install 10 hand pumps from where people will get drinking water. Similar stories are to be found in almost every small and big town where contractors and engineers have joined hands to keep people thirsty, and deprived of education and health facilities.

The Chief Minister’s Inspection team has carried out survey of four districts and found a number of irregularities and discrepencies. “All said and done, the culprits are the contractors who mint money from brick and mortar in the name of development”, said an official.

With representatives of “lower middle class” in the Governor House and in-charge of various departments including that of planning and finance there are lot of expectations.

But a report suggest that 100 out of 168 members of the assembly have given development schemes, each of Rs5 million outlay, to the planning department. One of the early decisions taken by Jamali-led coalition government was to allow each assembly member utilisation of Rs5 million development fund. Only God knows how these Rs500 million funds would be utilised in the future. This amount may come close to Rs1 billion if all the members come up with their respective development schemes. How these schemes would fit in overall development programme of the district or province is anybody’s guess.

Sindh presents a very dismal scenario this fiscal year so far as the utilisation of development funds is concerned. Hardly 26 per cent of Rs7 billion allocated funds for the Sindh ADP were utilised during nine months of the current fiscal year. By the year end, coming June, planners believe total utilisation of development funds would be hardly 50 per cent. This position of development funds utilisation in Sindh belies a claim made in the document of the Planning Division released only this week that all the four provinces have utilised 100 per cent of the allocated Rs44 billion. At least not in Sindh if facts given in a document released by the provincial planning department are to be believed.

According to the Sindh government, the total utilisation of development funds by the 16 elected district administrations is 27.3 per cent. The provincial government could utilise only 24 per cent of the allocated development funds during July 02 to March 03.

Total development outlay for Sindh during the current fiscal year amounted to Rs14.78 billion. This included Rs7 billion ADP, Rs2.80 billion foreign-aided projects, Rs 2.80 billion Khushal Pakistan programme, Rs300 million Tameer-e-Sindh, Rs1.80 billion Drought Emergency Relief Assistance and Rs1.80 billion Education Sector Reforms.

“Throughout the province, from Keamari to Kashmore and from Obaro to Orangi, there is despair and cynicism and hopelessness”, is a candid observation of the ‘Development Endeavour 2002-03’ which announced loudly: “it is time to make the government work for all the people”.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) boycotted the local bodies elections held in three phases. But MQM emerged as one of the leading parties in National and Sindh assemblies elections in October. Districts in the interior of Sindh are controlled by traditional feudal-political families who are averse to the idea of people’s empowerment. In main urban centres like Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur the nazims and other elected councillors are from Jamat Islami, PPP, PML and other groups.

With such a heterogeneous set-ups at the provincial and district levels, there was bound to be acrimony and development work had to suffer. There were more than 7,000 transfers of officers at various levels. The districts were found wanting in capacity and skill to conceive, formulate, implement and monitor cost effective and result-oriented development programmes. After all, contractors and engineers in various departments are conditioned to prepare schemes in their rooms and implement on paper and share money among themselves for years, nay decades.

“I provided Rs200 million over and above the allocated share of development funds for Karachi” Shoib Bokhari, the Sindh Planning and Development Minister replied when asked if there was any friction between him and the nazim of Karachi.

“See the facts and study the figures of funds released by the finance department and you will get to know how quick we were to respond at our end to any legitimate demand”, Bokhari said.

The year 2002-03 can be termed as tentative and transitional as far as the working of the political set-up in Sindh was concerned. One year should have taught many lessons to all the players and there are expectations that all political forces would join hands to deliver to the deprived people of Sindh where poverty is most severe and widespread.

Ironically, the year 2002-03, when the government should have started working for all the people of the province, has proved to be tentative. Development work in Sindh has suffered both in terms of utilisation of the available resources and the quality of the work itself. The year 02-03 has been tentative. It started with controversial referendum in end-April last year and its hangover affected the normal working of the province after July when the current fiscal year began. Then came the elections for the graduate assemblies in October which too retarded the pace of work in the province. Elected governments were installed sometimes in January this year. This happened in all the provinces and Sindh is no exception. But what makes Sindh different from other provinces is the fact that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement is the biggest coalition party of the provincial set-up.The MQM had boycotted the district and local bodies elections held in three phases on the ground that the federal government has no business to encroach upon the domain of provincial jurisdiction.The MQM’s stand is that local bodies are a provincial affair. This has created a scenario which is not to be found in other provinces. The 16 district governments in Sindh 18 town municipal administrations in Karachi, 84 town municipal administrations in rest of the Sindh and 1096 union administrations in the entire province are led by PPP, PML of all shades and colours, Jamat Islami and other small groups. In Sindh, the MQM now control the provincial administration and all other parties with semblance of an adversarial relationship are in the district and town governments.