ISLAMABAD, March 8: The Planning Commission has urgently sought the intervention of higher authorities to direct the ministry of interior and provincial governments to chalk out a joint strategy to control the law and order situation that is hampering execution of development projects.

Sources said that the Commission was of the view that without providing adequate protection and security, especially for foreigners, it would be difficult to complete development projects in time.

Additionally, the ban on recruitment in Punjab and Sindh was adversely affecting the federally funded development projects. “A federal policy on recruitment needs to be adopted for such projects,” a source said.

The deputy chairman of the Planning Commission will soon meet the chief ministers of Punjab and Sindh to find out the reasons, other than law and order, which hamper their governments in executing federal funded projects.

He has completed consultations with the chief ministers of the NWFP and Balochistan.

The Planning Commission has called for ‘institutionalizing the system’ to avoid delay in project execution by involving the ministries and provinces to move more vigorously in the process of monitoring.

The coordination between the federal ministries and provincial departments has been termed as ‘one major problem’ in the way of efficient execution of projects for which a high level meeting was held on Feb 2, but could not take any decision.

It has also been argued by the Commission that the finance division should evolve a procedure of “direct placement of funds at the disposal of the project authorities to overcome the problem of delayed releases”.