LAHORE: The leader of opposition in the Punjab Assembly has issued a white paper on what he calls “financial mismanagement and bad governance” of the Punjab government.

Mian Mahmoodur Rashid said the massive financial mismanagement and bad governance had pushed back the province by 10 years. He said Punjab was already under a heavy burden of loans worth Rs452 billion while the government had applied for $385 million more.

“The loans will add to the miseries of the province, especially when they have to be paid back with a mark-up.”

He said since 2008, Punjab had been getting an additional Rs100 billion from the federal government apart from the National Finance Commission proceeds. This additional amount had not improved the financial health of the province, which was worsening by the day.

Giving details of the white paper in his chamber here on Tuesday, the opposition leader said the Punjab government was taking fresh loans worth $350 million from the Asian Development Bank and $35 million from the International Fund for Agricultural Development. He asked if the government could generate Rs100 billon on its own for Metro Bus Service in three cities of the province, why it could not generate resources to improve the living standards of the poor for whom it was relying on foreign loans.

Rashid said the provincial government did not want to learn from past blunders and continued to invest and waste money on useless and failed projects like Yellow Cab Scheme, Ashiyana houses, Sasti Roti, Food Support Programme, laptop scheme, Green Tractor Scheme, mobile health units, solar lamps and Daanish schools. It had already wasted over Rs100 billion on such projects. The opposition leader feared the Sahiwal coal power project and the Quaid-i-Azam Solar Park would also end up like the “bogus” Nandipur Power Project. He demanded these issues be debated in the provincial assembly and a day be devoted to discuss the financial mismanagement of the Punjab government.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2014