Although, the general elections are just around the corner, the Sindh government is facing the worst financial crisis as it will not be able to complete more than 1,200 ongoing development schemes as the federal government has withheld Rs 44 billion of Sindh’s share from the Federal Divisible Pool, Pakistan today has learnt.
These ongoing schemes were supposed to be completed by the start of January this year, however the financial managers of the Sindh government were shocked when they realised that the ongoing schemes could not be completed on the designated time. However, the Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Syed Qaim Ali Shah was likely to take up the issue with the president and prime minister, officials told Pakistan Today.
“Yes, the Sindh government is waiting for the federal government to transfer its share worth Rs 44 billion since the last one and a half months. The delay in transfer will adversely affect more than 1,200 ongoing schemes in the province that are supposed to be completed before March this year under the Annual Development Plan (ADP),” Planning and Development Department Special Secretary (Development) Dr Noorul Haq told Pakistan Today.
“The funds transfer was supposed to take place by mid-December last year, however the authorities at Islamabad are delaying the release of Sindh’s share that will ultimately put these schemes in jeopardy,” the secretary added. Interestingly, the financial managers, at the time of budget finalisation, had dropped at least 1,323 new development schemes as they wanted to complete the ongoing schemes before the general elections were held, and priority was only given to those schemes that had reached near completion. It was also believed that the non-completion of these hundreds of development schemes worth billions of rupees was likely to inflict serious damage to the leaders of the ruling Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) government in the upcoming general elections.
Sources opined that the federal government was delaying the release of funds to Sindh’s that would likely result in aggravating the existing financial crisis in the province, while funds worth Rs 65 billion could also not be released by the centre for the federally-funded ADP 2012-13. The officials of the planning and development and the finance departments recently held a meeting which was also attended by other senior officials, and expressed their reservation on the centre’s arbitrarily delay in releasing the required funds. Furthermore, the sources claimed that the officials of planning and development and finance departments would shortly brief the CM regarding the progress made on development plans and a final decision would be taken by the president.
