KARACHI: Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Wednesday said that the provincial government had taken important measures to address the issue of poverty across the province, allocating Rs4.22 billion to be utilised by the Sindh Rural Support Organisation and another Rs1.2 billion for the Social Protection Unit for building the social registry.

Speaking at the post-budget press conference, he said that austerity measures would be adopted as part of the strategy to overcome the budget deficit of over Rs33bn.

To another question, he said that that the 40 per cent POL quota of the government officers had been curtailed keeping in view the 40pc increase in POL prices.

The CM said that the next year’s Rs1.73 trillion budget had 69.9pc, or Rs1.199tr, current revenue expenditures, 3.18pc, or Rs54.5bn current capital expenditures and 26.8pc, or Rs459.65bn, development expenditures.

Replying to a question, the chief minister said that the total development outlay for Karachi in 2022-23 was Rs125bn.

Giving the break-up of the amount and the schemes, Mr Shah said that Rs80.077bn had been allocated for 750 Karachi-specific schemes including Rs60.686bn for 483 ongoing schemes and Rs19.390bn for 267 news schemes.

The CM said that Rs5bn had been allocated from District Annual Development Programme and Rs40.715bn for seven projects through the foreign project assistance.

‘Medical City’

The chief minister announced Gambat, a small town of Khairpur district, as Medical City.

“A new term of medical tourism has been coined for the cities where people would go for their treatment,” he said and added Gambat would provide all kinds of medical facilities by establishing a healthcare related institution.

The CM said that currently 660 MW was being produced from Thar Block-II and by the end of next year 2,000 MW coal-fired power would be generated.

“Thar has the capacity to meet not only the total energy requirement of the country but can export its additional production to earn the foreign exchange,” he said and emphasized on how to tap its maximum potential.

Mr Shah said that the energy sector had been given Rs32.92bn, including Rs2.55bn development and Rs30.37bn non-development budget.

He added that the energy portfolio had been increased by Rs6.992bn for next financial year.

Technical education

“We have 65pc population of youth up to 35 years of age. Therefore, we have decided to establish universities or campuses of universities in every district so that they could impart technical education,” he said.

He added his government was going to announce a five-year IT policy.

Mr Shah announced that he had given 100pc allocation to the projects of universities/campuses so that they could be completed within one or two years.

He added that Thar Technical Institute was already working and it would be made a fully fledged university during the next financial year.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2022