PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is developing a ‘digital diary’ to keep a check on the misuse of official vehicles, especially in foreign-funded projects carried out in the province, the provincial assembly was informed here on Friday.

Responding to a cut motion moved by Awami National Party MPA Shagufta Malik during the session chaired by Speaker Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani, minister for parliamentary affairs Akbar Ayub admitted the misuse of project vehicles.

He said the administration department was designing a ‘digital diary’ to register all official vehicles, including project ones.

The minister said the initiative would help prevent the misuse of official vehicles.

He asked lawmakers to identify officers and their families, who are using more vehicles than the authorised ones, and said the department would take action against them.

MPA Shagufta Malik demanded that the government withdraw additional vehicles from officers and their families.

Minister asks MPAs to identify officers using more vehicles than authorised ones

She also said senior officers were violating the rules by keeping three private secretaries each.

The sitting began more than two hours after the scheduled time.

Earlier, Chief Minister Mahmood Khan went to the opposition’s chambers in an attempt to maintain cordial atmosphere in the house and get all demands for grants relating to different departments approved.

Interestingly, the treasury members didn’t move cut motion and looked as silent spectators during the discussion.

The opposition members moved cut motions and criticised departments for poor performances but didn’t ask the chair for putting their motions to vote.

The house passed four demands for grants.

Speaking on a cut motion related to general administration department worth more than Rs4.17 billion, ANP MPA Khushdil Khan advocate said the government created confusion by merging allocations of the Governor’s House with the administration department’s.

He said the nomenclature of the Governor’s House had been mentioned in the Constitution and therefore, the government should make separate allocation for the Governor’s House to avoid confusion.

Responding to a cut motion, finance minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra dispelled the impression that the funds for development schemes had lapsed in the last and current financial years.

He said the provincial government had spent Rs635 billion against the total allocation of Rs615 billion to mitigate the impacts of coronavirus pandemic.

The minister said the government could consider the proposal for the assembly’s authorisation of each supplementary grant before utilisation instead of asking for its approval at the end of the financial year.

He said the government fulfilled the constitutional provision for utilising supplementary grants and sought the cabinet’s approval.

Mr Jhagra said for the first time, the government was releasing all development funds on the first day of the new financial year, a record in the country’s history.

He denied allegations that the government was utilising funds through unelected people and said the budget belonged to 40 million people of the province.

“KP is not like Punjab, where 56 per cent budget of the province is utilised in Lahore alone and rest of the districts are ignored. We believe in the judicious distribution of funds among all districts of the province,” he said.

The opposition members cried foul over the allocation of development funds and criticised the planning and development department for setting wrong priorities.

They said the department concerned didn’t set the criteria and legal mechanism for the allocation of development funds.

The opposition members said the Supreme Court, too, had opposed umbrella schemes and bulk allocations of funds for development projects.

Minister Akbar Ayub said the court’s guidelines were being followed in the allocation of funds under umbrella schemes and that a complete PC-I of the scheme would be presented before the relevant forum for approval.

He said each unit of every scheme would be reviewed before approval otherwise it would be rejected.

The minister said the government was paying attention to the provincial capital and invested Rs66 billion on the construction of the Bus Rapid Transit in the provincial capital alone.

“It shows the importance the PTI government is according to Peshawar,” he said.

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2021