PESHAWAR: The opposition members in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Monday cast doubts about the PTI-led government’s claim of financial stability.

“If the provincial government has (adequate) funds and the economy is stable, then why the finance department is not releasing money for development schemes, which have stopped due to paucity of funds,” PPP lawmaker from Bannu Fakhr Azam told the house.

Deputy Speaker Prof Mehar Taj Roghani presided over the session.

The PPP member questioned the rationale behind delay in the release of funds for development projects if the finance department had enough funds. He was responding to the reply of the finance department to his question.

Wonders if funds are there, why they’re not being released for uplift schemes

The issue cropped up during the question hour and its reply to Mr. Azam’s query, provincial finance department informed the lawmakers that government has not borrowed domestic loan in the current financial year.

Finance minister Muzafar Said advocate told lawmakers that the finance department had to borrow Rs10 billion, which was already reflected in the budget’s documents.

“The terms and conditions for loan are being worked out,” he said.

In a supplementary question, Qaumi Watan Party lawmaker Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli said it was good to hear that the government had so far borrowed no loans.

She asked from where the government had arranged money as it was supposed to borrow the amount mentioned in the budget documents.

Mrs Tahirkheli asked if the government intended to borrow domestic loan if the money had not been secured so far.

She suggested the chair to direct the finance department to arrange a briefing for lawmakers about the financial situation of the province.

The finance department informed the house in response to another question of MPA Azam that the provincial government managed to collect slightly over half of the province’s estimated taxes in the last fiscal.

It said the province’s own receipts were projected to be Rs49.50 billion in 2016-17 but they’re later revised to Rs32.46 billion and that the total tax collections stood at Rs27.32 billion at the end of the financial year.

The department said the provincial government was hopeful about generating Rs45.52 billion during the current year.

The house unanimously passed a resolution demanding of the provincial government to make the promotion of tree plantation compulsory in all public and private sector schools.

The resolution was moved by MPA Amna Sardar of the PML-N.

In her resolution, Ms Amna said the promotion of tree plantation should be made binding for all private and public sector schools.

The resolution was also signed by law minister Imtiaz Shahid and lawmakers Raja Faisal Zaman, Yasmeen Pir Mohammad, Askar Pervez, Sardar Hussain and Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli.

The house unanimously passed it when the speaker put it to vote.

By passing another resolution, the house demanded the federal government ask the Balochistan government to compensate Upper Dir’s miners, who were killed in a recent coal mine collapse in the province.

The resolution was moved by PPP member Sanaullah Khan, who said eight people working in a Balochistan coal mine died after the mine collapsed.

He added that all those miners were the residents of Upper Dir.

Most of the questions and other agenda items lapsed due to the absence of the relevant lawmakers, which also caused a lack of quorum.

The chair adjourned the session until today (Tuesday).

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2017