ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) on Wednesday said misuse of public funds for personal ambition by the rulers has left federal and provincial budgets pointless. The federal and provincial governments continue to exceed limits of non-developmental expenditures to impose hefty cuts on the developmental budgets keeping masses underdeveloped, said Dr. Murtaza Mughal, President PEW.
Talking to Patron Islamabad Chamber of Small Traders Shahid Rasheed Butt, he said useless mega projects should not be preferred on welfare projects in a poor country like Pakistan. He said that last year Punjab allocated Rs345 billion for development but spent only Rs290 billion while remaining Rs55 billion were used for other purposes.
Allocation for public order was down from Rs1 billion and 171 million to Rs 966 million while Rs151 million less were spent on environmental protection. Education got almost Rs 45 billion in the last budget but around 23.5 billion were actually spent.
Dr. Murtaza Mughal said that agriculture development were allocated Rs7 billion and 960 million but the spending stood at Rs 1 billion and 762 million while a department broke all records by spending around Rs18 billion in excess of allocation.
It is amazing that Rs 400 million were allocated for special education and Rs 50 million were assigned to non-formal basic education but these sectors have been totally neglected in the new budget, he pointed out.
INP