IF the frequent cuts in public development spending in the name of austerity signify bad economic policy, the delay in the execution of the projects for which funds are available is even worse. This newspaper published on Monday a report that a whopping sum of Rs47bn meant for installing a basic telecommunication infrastructure to provide services such as telephony, broadband, etc to people living in the underdeveloped and more remote areas of the country remains unutilised. This is upsetting to say the least. More so because the government has scrapped scores of development projects which are crucial to improving the country's socio-economic infrastructure and generating new jobs on account of the financial crunch.

The money collected for the purpose from the telecom companies operating in the country lies idle in the accounts of the Universal Service Fund and the Information and Communication Technology Research and Development Fund. This is because Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who holds the charge of the information technology ministry, does not have the time to chair the board meeting of these two funds for approving the projects. The board meetings have been cancelled five times owing to Mr Gilani's unavailability. The board has met only once in the last 14 months, and that too before Mr Gilani took charge of the IT ministry. Consequently, work on more than 500 schemes for providing basic telecommunication services in over 12,000 un-served and underserved villages and towns in over 85 tehsils has been stalled. While these projects are stuck midway, an equal number of schemes could not be started because of the same reasons. Thus, thousands of far-flung villages and underdeveloped areas in Balochistan and Fata, for example, remain without optic fibre and Internet connectivity. This has prompted telecom companies to demand an end to their contributions to the fund which is mandated under an agreement with the International Telecommunication Union.

Many are also concerned over the effort to amend laws for diverting the funds allocated for certain projects to those that the money is not meant for. This would amount to going against the current. It would be unfortunate if the money collected for providing people living in remote areas access to telecommunication services is redirected elsewhere. The government must get its priorities right and ensure that work on the stalled projects is resumed and that new schemes are approved at the earliest, even if it means the delegation of powers of the board chairman to the secretary of the ministry or some other board member. Mr Gilani's absence must not be allowed to impede development.