Frontier finances

For the first time in a long while the NWFP government has been able to present a balanced budget, making a break with customary deficit budgeting. In the past, the province was not able to tap potential sources for generating revenue of its own and relied heavily on the handouts from the federal government, hydroelectricity profit share and donor agencies to cover the shortfall in its finances.

This time round, Finance Minister Sirajul Haq has been able to identify some indigenous sources of revenue generation such by imposing taxes on marriage halls, Internet cafes and diesel and CNG stations. The introduction of professional tax by the NWFP government in the coming fiscal year follows the lead of Punjab and Sindh. Thus, budget 2004-05, with a total outlay of just under Rs61 billion, matches the estimated provincial receipts in the coming fiscal year.

A large chunk of it - Rs27.761 billion - will come from the federal divisible pool. Additional amounts of eight billion rupees from hydroelectricity profit share, Rs1.2 billion in lieu of general sales tax and Rs405 million in subventions will also be remitted to the Frontier by Islamabad.

In his budget speech, the finance minister claimed the following breakdown for three key areas of expenditure: 57 per cent for welfare projects, 28 per cent for development and the remaining 25 per cent to cover administrative costs. However, he did not mention the areas or sectors which fell under the head of welfare (one hopes that here the ruling MMA's ideologically aligned outfits will not be the sole beneficiaries).

Several development programmes in the province will receive a total of Rs16 billion in the coming fiscal year as compared to the outgoing year's revised sum of Rs11.65 billion, which had to be cut down from the original 14.6 billion. The cut was necessitated by the non-materialization of promised foreign aid as well as under pressure from the World Bank, which advised the NWFP government to drop certain development projects. In the coming year, the finance minister has wisely decided not to rely on foreign aid for his ADPs and has reinstated all the projects stalled during the outgoing fiscal year.

Again, showing wisdom, Mr Sirajul Haq has proposed that no new development projects be undertaken in the coming year so that programmes already underway or those that were scrapped for paucity of funds could now be completed. This is a logical approach.

Major on-going development projects in the province include the completion of 1,450km of roads, streamlining of the irrigation system, upgrading of basic health-care facilities in the rural areas and adult literacy initiatives. The NWFP government plans to open 20,000 new adult literacy centres across the province in the coming year besides building 198 new primary schools, 12 colleges for girls, five for boys, three polytechnic and four vocational institutes and 169 computer laboratories in the existing schools.

Overall, education will get a total spending of just under Rs13 billion, while the health sector will receive Rs3.305 billion. Like in education, the emphasis in the health sector is also on upgrading rural health-care centres and on offering incentives to doctors and paramedics to serve in villages and remote areas. In the absence of a consensus among provinces on giving additional weightages to less developed provinces in the next NFC award, this is a good budget and takes into account public sectors that should get the priority they deserve in a province like the NWFP.

Nek Mohammad's death

Tribal militant Nek Mohammad's death in a missile attack by security forces brings to an end the drama that began with the famous "Shakai embrace" on April 24. Even though the events preceding the surrender at Shakai and the subsequent military operations had a larger dimension, Nek Mohammad was its central figure. On April 24, he had surrendered to the security forces along with five other wanted men and had promised to live in peace. As part of the bargain, the government later released 50 prisoners.

However, immediately after the surrender, differences arose over the terms of the agreement. Nek insisted he never promised to surrender foreign terrorists hiding in the Wana area. He said that foreigners living in South Waziristan were passing normal lives and were not involved in any terrorist activity. The government, then, accused him of a breach of faith and went after him.

Honour and promise have a special place in a tribal society. For that reason, Nek lost the sympathy of many tribal elders. In fact, despite having an array of modern electronic devices - as claimed by the military spokesman - the security forces could not have kept track of his movement without some tribesmen's cooperation. His death in a village on Wana's outskirts may constitute a victory for the security forces, but that does not end the problem for Islamabad.

Terrorists loyal to Al Qaeda are very much there in the tribal area, and only an uninterrupted pursuit of the problem can produce results in the long run. This means that the government should place as much emphasis on political means as on military. Al Qaeda still has sympathizers in the tribal belt, but the tribesmen's cooperation for getting hold of them can be won by economic and political means.

The tribesmen should be made to realize that Al Qaeda and foreign militants were involved in acts of terror, violence and subversion in Pakistan and that the victims of their terrorist activity were often innocent Pakistanis. They must be told that such criminal offences in no way serve the cause of Islam or contribute to this country's peace, progress and stability.

Housing societies

Rawalpindi Development Authority's action in serving legal notices on the eighteen illegal housing schemes to cease operations immediately is unlikely to be welcomed by the people who have already invested their hard-earned money in these schemes.

The question arises as to why, if they are illegal, did the authorities not stop these housing societies much earlier when they were launched rather than waiting until they have already collected money from unsuspecting investors. Similar action had also been taken earlier in Islamabad against dozens of such housing societies, putting the investment of hundreds of families at stake.

The fact that such private housing societies have mushroomed over the years and that many people are willing to invest in these schemes is indicative of the demand for housing in the twin cities on the one hand and the authorities' failure to meet that demand on the other through schemes of their own. In this respect, the federal government's new housing strategy announced in mid-April is a welcome move.

As a corollary to this there must be firm action against land grabbing that is common in urban areas. But until this new strategy begins to bear fruit in the form of adequate housing for the needs of citizens, it is unfair to punish people, who have invested in what has now been declared as "illegal" private housing schemes.