Out of a total of Rs 15 billion, only Rs 8 billion has been released so far for various projects in FATA which would seriously hit development work in the region.
Around Rs 1.5 billion of the total allocation was foreign funding while the government was responsible for the remaining amount, said an official on Saturday, requesting anonymity.
He said the money was released in tranches on two grounds, firstly on the completion status of the previous development schemes and secondly the availability of funds. The official said the FATA Development Authority and the FATA Secretariat were supposed to utilise 10 per cent and 90 per cent of the reserved amount respectively.
According to the official, communication and road infrastructure was the top priority in the development plan for which around 30.65 per cent of the total allocation had been allocated whereas education and health sectors were second and third on the list with 21.42 and 10.16 per cent shares of the budget.
When contacted, Senator Hafiz Rasheed Ahmed, Senate Standing Committee on States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) Chairman, said most of the money was released in the third or fourth tranche as no development scheme could be completed within the specified period, which would result in lapse of funds. He warned that around half of the development budget would lapse despite the promises made by the Finance Ministry on the recommendation of the Senate’s Standing Committee on SAFRON to release all funds by March.
The senator said they would soon submit a proposal to hand over the control of FATA Secretariat to the Ministry of SAFRON to make the development process in FATA more efficient.
