ISLAMABAD
Almost all the federal ministries and departments have failed to meet the January 31 deadline to submit budgetary demands for the next fiscal year with the relevant standing committees of the National Assembly, Pakistan Today has learnt.
However, it seems that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government has no regard for the parliamentary oversight and input by lawmakers as none of the ministries have taken measures to fulfill their constitutional obligation.
Meanwhile, the Information Technology (IT) Ministry is likely to be the first to submit its proposed Public Sector Development Projects (PSDP) demand of Rs 2813.341 million for FY-2014-15 on Friday (today) in the meeting of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on IT.
In January 29, 2013, the National Assembly passed an amendment moved by PML-N lawmaker Anusha Rehman Khan, but after taking the charge of the IT Ministry, she did not direct her ministry to meet the legal obligation.
The amendment was aimed at enabling the lawmakers to scrutinize the PSDP demands and give recommendations to help parliament in preparing an error-free budget.
The civil society and monitoring bodies have also reminded the government to fulfill its obligation, but to no avail. In a recent letter sent to NA Speaker Ayaz Sadiq, the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) said that various federal ministries had submitted their PSDP budget proposals to the respective committees. It also said that through a key reform passed by the outgoing NA the committees had been empowered to scrutinize and suggest amendments in this regard.
“This change in rules now means that each ministry is supposed to submit its budgetary proposals relating to the PSDP for the next financial year not later than January 31 to the committee concerned. The committees are required to make recommendations latest by March 1 on the budget back to the Ministry,” the letter said.
IT Minister Anusha Rahman did not feel it necessary to respond to the questions raised by Pakistan Today.
Later, IT Ministry Additional Secretary Azmat Ranjha said that the ministry had finalised its budgetary proposals and the same would be submitted to the committee on Friday (today).
“Due to some unavoidable reasons, the standing committee could not meet last month. But we had prepared our budgetary proposals and demands for the next fiscal,” he asserted.
Ranjha insisted that Anusha Rahman was concerned about meeting the January 31 deadline.
“Under the prescribed rules, the budgetary proposals could be presented to the committees until end of February and we will meet this timeline. So no delay is committed,” he said, despite the fact that the amendment is self-explanatory and contradicts claims made by Ranjha.
PSDP demands:
According to the official documents of the IT Ministry available with Pakistan Today, the ministry has proposed Rs 2,813.341 million PSDP for FY-2014-15 for 24 ongoing and seven new projects.
Of the total demand, Rs 1,826.750 million have been sought for sponsoring 24 ongoing projects as compared to last year’s allocation for the same head which was Rs 927.093 million.
This year, the demand has been almost doubled as excessive amount of Rs 840.159 million have been demanded.
According to documents, Rs 986.591 million have been sought for sponsoring seven new projects to be initiated in three departments of the ministry, including the project wing of PCB, Pakistan Software Export Board and Special Communication Organisation.
