KARACHI, Sept 30: A national consultative workshop on “economic literacy and budget analysis” on Friday came down hard on government’s selection of mega projects in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), ignoring the parliament in main economic decision and insulation of the budget drawing process from the public at large.

“Mega projects are initiated under political considerations without looking into merits and demerits,” is one of the conclusions of the day-long deliberations organized jointly by the Participatory Development Initiative (PDI) and the Actionaid Pakistan.

Those who participated in the workshop were Senator Professor Ghafoor Ahmad, ex-Senator Taj Hyder, MNA Mohammad Hasan Mehanti, Peter Cosgrove of the Aga Khan University, Dr Ahmad Nawaz Kahro of the Islamabad University, Professor Mushtaq Mirani of the Sindh University, Nasir Mansoor of the Labour Education Foundation, Ashfaq Memon of the Sindh Development Society, Sartaj Abbasi of the Rootwork Balochistan, Habibullah of Devcon, Hyder Hussain of the Social Policy and Development Centre, Zahid Mengal of the Azat Foundation Quetta, Mueed Ahmad of the SDPI, Ms Tahira Khan, Adam Malik and Sikander Brohi.

The workshop demanded adequate representation of civil society members, technocrats, opposition leaders and other sections of the population in the Planning Commission, the Central Development Working Party, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council and the NEC. “The civil society members should be actively involved in the budget-making process.”

Many of these speakers said that most of the mega projects were taken up without preparation for feasibility report, especially when such a project is taken up on the instruction of the president. In many cases the objectives of the projects do not correspond to the overall PSDP.

Such elementary requirements as submission of the project completion report known as PC-4 and the actual benefits being accrued from the project PC-5 are never submitted to the Planning Commission.

The participants of the workshop noted that the parliament was bypassed in decision-making in respect of trade policy, investment, industry and agriculture. The cabinet or a committee of the cabinet takes the decision on al these vital matters, which affects country’s economy.

While discussing the role of multilateral donor agencies, the participants noted that tying aid to specific projects by the donors adversely affect the economic situation of the country.

Structural adjustment programmes, privatization and liberalization programmes came under close scrutiny of the participants many of whom alleged that these programmes had rendered thousands jobless and affected livelihood.

The participants also took note of the budget formulation in which there is no role for civil society and members of the parliament and provincial assemblies are token participants. The government holds discussion with the representatives of chambers of commerce and industry and that of agriculture. The members of the parliament and assemblies are given the budget documents at the time when it is presented. Discussions were held for a few days as mater of formality, the participants noted.