| 25 June 2004 | Friday | 06 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425 |
MMA's boycott of NSC
Azad Kashmir finances
Amidst pandemonium created by the hurling of budget documents and insults by opposition members at the treasury benches, Balochistan finance minister Syed Ehsan Shah presented a Rs42.73 billion budget on Wednesday for the next fiscal year.
The budget envisages revenues of Rs26.38 billion and expenditures of Rs28.45 billion, leaving a deficit of over two billion rupees.
This is to be met by deferring debt servicing amounting to two billion rupees to the centre and realization of income exceeding four billion rupees as gas development surcharge (GDS).
The budget relies heavily on federal receipts of Rs24.76 billion coming from the centre. In addition, Balochistan has once again laid claim to higher revenues from Islamabad on account of gas receipts in the form of subsidies and royalties.
The most important portion of the budget would be the Rs14.28 billion the government intends to spend on the Annual Development Plan. While some of the proposals under this head are practicable, there are others that need to be reconsidered.
For one, job creation in the public sector needs to be complemented with opportunities for the private sector to grow, which in turn will create employment opportunities on its own steam.
Little is being done to give incentives for greater private sector investment. Also, more needs to be done for enhancing local skills as well, or else local jobs in many cases will go to outsiders, as is being witnessed in the case of some major projects in the province.
This is another issue that has not been given much attention and no provision has been made for the development of local skills. More attention has also to be paid to law and order. This is a problem that is becoming a big worry in the province.
The complaints of the opposition also have to be taken into account. Many of the members who bore placards with anti-government slogans, stood in front of the finance minister as he spoke and made every effort to disrupt the proceedings.
The complaints of the opposition range from lower than expected allocations for development of their constituencies, as compared to the money being given to those from the treasury benches, to Corruption within the government and the poor financial management of the province in the past few years. Some of these points are valid.
The government needs to get its financial priorities right. More is spent in the province on salaries and perks to government servants than on actual development work.
This trend needs to be reversed. A serious effort needs to be made to cut wasteful expenditure and monitor spending. One hopes that these and other relevant issues come out in the ensuing assembly sessions on the budget so that the government finds it possible to revise its budgetary proposals where called for.
Rarely has Balochistan been given such fiscal space as is being seen in the context of the next year's budget. It should make the most of this by ensuring that money is allocated for the right sectors and schemes and is spent in a judicious manner. This will go a long way in removing much of the poverty and backwardness that the province has been steeped in for the past so many years.
MMA's boycott of NSC
The MMA's decision not to attend the National Security Council meetings seems strange considering the role it has played in the NSC's formation. Originally, the NSC was to be part of the Constitution, since the military government had included it in the Legal Framework Order.
But the entire LFO became a subject of intense controversy, because it contained not only the NSC clause but many other provisions about which the opposition had serious reservations.
Finally, the government clinched a deal with the MMA part of the opposition. Among other points, the government conceded, at the MMA's insistence, that the NSC would not be part of the Constitution but would be a statutory body; the MMA, much to the surprise of the ARD, dropped its opposition to the LFO provided the president gave a date for laying down his uniform.
Once this was agreed, the government had no difficulty in having the 17th Amendment bill passed by parliament. As for the NSC bill, the government had it passed in unseemly haste by the National Assembly despite a boycott by the MMA and ARD, because the PML-Q-led coalition enjoyed a simple majority.
Now, more than two months after the coming into being of the NSC through an act of parliament, the MMA has decided that Maulana Fazlur Rahman, leader of the opposition, and Maulana Akram Durrani, NWFP chief minister, will not attend NSC meetings.
Is this a case of belated wisdom dawning on the MMA? If the very coming into being of the NSC constituted a violation of the basic norms of constitutional government - as the ARD and all liberal sections of opinion thought - then the MMA should not have voted for the 17th Amendment bill.
But having done that, the MMA has chosen to boycott the NSC. One is at a loss to understand this contradiction in the MMA's policies.
Azad Kashmir finances
The Azad Kashmir budget for 2004-05 has a total outlay of Rs15,785.7 million. It focuses on infrastructure development and provision of electricity. The communication sector has been accorded priority by allocating Rs1.25 billion for it, which is 28 per cent of the total ADP and 13 per cent more than that of the current year.
But non-development expenditure amounting to Rs11,182.7 million exceeds resources earmarked for development: Rs4,603 million, including a foreign aid of Rs7006.880 million. No new taxes have been proposed in spite of a deficit of Rs1,925.452 million, brought down by Mangla Dam royalty of Rs938 million.
As before, there is reliance on traditional sources for meeting the budgetary needs. The total income has been estimated at Rs9,257.248 million, of which Rs3,905.153 million would be generated from excise and taxation, forests and electricity; Rs1,880 million from AJK Council as an 80 per cent share in the taxes collected by it and Rs2,534.095 million from the centre as AJK's share in federal revenues.
Emphasis on communication and hydro-power development could lay the basis for speedier uplift of far-flung areas and help promote agriculture and industry. Roads connecting district headquarters with Rawalpindi/Islamabad as well as AJK district roads would be converted into dual carriageways.
Besides, major roads would be constructed on the recommendation of the local MLAs. Feasibilities for construction of tunnels in Leepa, Kahuta and Pando would be carried out shortly.
Rs445 million have been earmarked for electricity to help provide power to AJK's entire population over the next three years. Considering AJK's 5,000 megawatts hydro-power potential, major initiatives are required to tap this vital energy source.
An amount of Rs986.880 million has been proposed for local government and rural development, including foreign aid of Rs396.880 million and special grant of Rs140 million by President Pervez Musharraf.
Of this allocation, Rs 84 million have been set aside for social sector projects in 28 constituencies on the recommendation of the MLAs concerned, Rs226 million for roads and bridges, Rs15 million for water supply schemes and Rs10 million for construction of primary schools.
Given widespread poverty and lack of health care, the social sector should have been given more attention. Besides, the AJK government would do well to derive maximum advantage from foreign-funded projects relating to community development and poverty alleviation and, at the same time, ensure proper utilization of allocations for upgrading and expanding health and educational facilities.