August 24, 2008	Sunday	Sha'aban 21, 1429

GILGIT, Aug 23: The federal government has made an eight per cent reduction in the first installment of development funds for Gilgit-Baltistan.

Senior officials in the local administration told Dawn that due to lack of political clout and say in the government affairs, the federal finance division had released only seven per cent of the uplift funds for the region compared to the 15 per cent given to all four provinces and Azad Kashmir.

“This means further delay in the completion of development projects,” they added.

They said though 272 projects were scheduled to complete during the current fiscal year but there was slim possibility that all of the projects would be completed because working season in the region is very short and due to freezing temperature construction activities come to a halt in winter.

The officials said contractors had already been complaining about non-payment of their dues and outstanding liabilities now touching over Rs5 billions mark.

Meanwhile, the Planning and Development Department of Northern Areas is giving final touches to the Annual Development Plan of current financial year which has already been approved by the federal ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas, official sources said.

The ADP would soon be circulated among all the stakeholders.

This year much focus has been laid on completion of the ongoing projects instead of identifying new ones.

Fuel shortage: The association of filling stations in Gilgit has announced an indefinite strike and stopped selling all kinds of fuel.

As a result, most of the vehicles remained off the road due to unavailability of petrol and diesel.

The reason for the strike, as stated by the association, is short supply of fuel by the Pakistan State Oil.

The local administration held negotiations with the association but could not succeed in persuading them to call off the strike.