QUETTA, Nov 23: Senior Provincial Minister Maulana Abdul Wasay has said that the Balochistan government will not stop work on development projects owing to financial crisis.

Speaking to the reporters at a dinner he hosted in the honour of journalists here on Sunday, he said: “We can stop the salaries of the public servants in case the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) refuses to give overdraft, but the development work will not be abandoned.”

He said that though the province was facing financial crisis, but the development process was in progress and the government was releasing public sector development funds.

The senior minister denied the reports that the SBP has refused to extend overdraft to the Balochistan government and said that so far the provincial government has taken overdraft of around Rs1.2 billion.

He said the provincial government has clarified to the federal government that development process would not be stopped even if the Centre would not fulfil its promises it made during the preparation of budget proposals.

Replying to a question about the NFC meeting in Islamabad he said that Sindh, Balochistan and the NWFP had agreed to strongly oppose the distribution of national resources on the bases of population in the next NFC award.

He said that in the first meeting of the National Finance Commission, the finance ministers of Sindh, Balochistan and the NWFP had demanded that for the distribution of resources some other indicators other then population should be included in the NFC award formula.

He said that the finance ministers of the three province had submitted suggestions in the larger interest of the country.

Replying to a question, he said that Balochistan had suggested that a percentage of the entire resources should be allocated for the distribution amongst all the four provinces on equal bases.

He said that in the first meeting provinces had presented their suggestions in detail and in the next meeting more points would come under discussion.

He said that he was satisfied with the outcome of first meeting and after Lahore the NFC meetings would also be held in other provinces.

About MMA central leadership’s decision to launch movement against the government, he said that the provincial chapter of the alliance would follow the orders and instruction of the MMA central executive committee.