PESHAWAR: The PTI government came under fire from the opposition in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Saturday over a surge in throw-forward liabilities from Rs37 billion at the end of the ANP government in the financial year 2013-14 to Rs469 billion in 2018-19.

The opposition also complained that the project completion period had gone up from one and a half years to six years during the PTI’s tenure.

The throw-forward liabilities are the expenses, which cannot be made in the current year and are budgeted to be met in later years based on average allocations.

Opposition also flays ruling PTI over delay in completion of uplift projects

During the budget debate, all cabinet members, especially finance minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra, took credit for reduction in the throw-forward liabilities to Rs203 billion.

The government announced the reduction of the project completion period from six years to 3.9 years in the 2019-20 budget.

The issue of throw-forward liabilities was raised by ANP parliamentary leader Sardar Hussain Babak as the house held budget debate for the second day with deputy speaker Mahmud Jan in the chair.

The ANP leader asked treasury members to have a look at page 29 of the white paper showing a sharp increase in the throw-forward liabilities and duration for project completion in their party’s government.

He said though the incidence of terrorism peaked in the province and 2.5 million people were displaced due to military operation, the ANP government kept the project completion time at one and a half years and throw-forward liabilities at Rs37 billion.

“The ruling PTI is responsible for increasing throw-forward liabilities and not completing the projects within stipulated time,” he said.

Mr Babak said the growing throw-forward liabilities exposed the government’s poor financial management.

According to the white paper, at the end of the ANP’s tenure in 2013-14, the period for completing development schemes was one and a half years, while the throw-forward liabilities stood at Rs37 billion.

The throw-forward liabilities skyrocketed under the subsequent Pervez Khattak government before reaching Rs469 billion in the current year.

Responding to Mr Babak’s criticism, local government and rural development minister Shahram Khan Tarakai said the project completion period in developed countries was five to six years.

He said the speedy completion of development projects was the result of the ANP government’s poor planning.

“There were no big projects in the ANP tenure and that’s why that the project completion period was short,” he said.

The minister said most development funds were spent during the ANP government on the construction of drains and streets.

The opposition lawmakers from southern districts staged a protest in front of the speaker’s rostrum against the alleged discrimination in the allocation of development funds for their areas.

Mian Nisar Gul of the MMA led the protest after debating the budget.

Other protesters were PPP’s Sher Azam Wazir and Ahmad Karim Kundi and MMA’s Maulana Lutfur Rehman and Zafar Azam.

They shouted slogans against the government for ‘ignoring the underdeveloped areas of the province’ and demanded ‘justice’ for southern districts, which, they said, faced problems for being ignored by the successive governments.

PML-N parliamentary leader Sardar Aurangzeb Nalotha said the opposition lawmakers knew that the government won’t incorporate their single suggestion in the budget but they delivered long speeches just to vent their spleen against it.

He criticised the government for increasing the retirement age from 60 years to 63 years saying the move will deprive many youths of jobs, who were to be appointed to the positions to be vacated by retirees.

Mufti Ubaidur Rehman of the PML-Q and Bacha Salih of the PPP also participated in the budget debate.

The chair later adjourned the session until Monday.

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2019