June 28, 2003	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 27,1424

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PESHAWAR, June 27: The NWFP assembly on Friday passed a Rs9,370 million supplementary budget to meet the expenditures borne by its government during 2002-03.

The opposition lawmakers, who suggested austerity measures to the government in future, flayed the additional expenditures made by certain departments out of public money. They held bureaucracy responsible for the present sufferings of the people and backwardness of the province.

Anwar Kamal Marwat of the PML-N said if you would spend more and more on non-development sector, you would have to slash funds allocated for the annual development programme (ADP). It would continue to compound incomplete schemes every year, he added.

The successive governments, he said, had been in a bad habit of projecting funds for a heavy ADPs, but failed to put needed funds into them. This time, too, the government had used the same formula to appease lawmakers, though it had no funds to complete all the 691 schemes within the specified time and had a backlog of over 200 incomplete projects, he observed.

He drew the attention of the house towards the growing sense of economic insecurity. What incentives the government had offered in the budget to a worker earning Rs80 per day, he questioned.

Abdul Akbar Khan of the People’s Party said that under Article 124 of the Constitution, the government could seek a grant for a pressing need, but the demands made by the certain departments did not identify any need. He said it was unfair to let them spend huge amount on routine things, he added.

He said the government earned Rs160 million out of minerals’ export, but had not allocated a single penny for the development of mines and minerals in the province. He flayed the supplementary budget for non-development expenditures.

Israrullah Gandpur of the PPP-S demanded of the government to revive 6,000 posts abolished by the previous government in the name of right-sizing, as the unemployment rate was shooting up day by day in the province.

Nasrin Khattak asked the government to focus on social sector rather than giving in to the bureaucracy.

Arshid Khan from Charsadda said if the government was short of funds, the people should be permitted to cultivate poppy for generating funds. In this situation how the government would manage its affairs, he added.

Yasmeen Khan of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) proposed the government to exempt widows from the payment of property tax. She said if the Centre would pay all outstanding amounts, the province could revamp its police force on modern lines. She said the underpaid police force could not maintain law and order in the province.

Concluding the debate, Senior Minister Sirajul Haq assured the house that the MMA government would try its best not to present a supplementary budget next year.

The police department, he said, was facing paucity of funds. He said the police were not provided even with the required fuel to patrol in their respective areas. Despite all odds, the police were doing well, said the minister.

He expressed his dissatisfaction over the pace of working of judicial system.