The “break the beggar’s bowl” mantra being chanted by the Punjab government and its ongoing “efforts” to rid the country of funding from the United States have turned out to be a bit of a farce, as the Punjab government reportedly has not received a single penny in grants or loans from the US so far, Pakistan Today learned on Thursday.
Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had recently ordered the formation of core groups to formulate a plan to rid the province of US funds. However, sources in the Punjab government revealed that it was not a beneficiary of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) or loans “in any form whatsoever”. Giving details of foreign assistance from various donors, they said Rs 12.597 billion had come in as foreign project assistance in the fiscal year 2010-11 in addition to budgetary support grants. “Not even a single penny, either as loans or grants, comes from the US government… although several meetings have been held between the US and Punjab government officials, these were mere talks and nothing concrete came out of them,” they said.
Another senior official, who wished to remain unnamed, said talks had been taking place with US officials on just two projects in southern Punjab. “The Punjab Municipal Service Programme at the cost of $76 million and the Punjab Educational Support Programme at the cost of $146.9 million were in the pipeline,” he said, adding that the government signed the education support programme in December last year but no funds had been granted by the US so far. He said that funds for both projects were grants, not loans. “The US government officials wanted more transparency in the implementation of these projects and also put forward other conditions, to which the government finally decided to say no because no other donor had put forth such tough conditions,” he added. He said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) gave funds only to the federal government, while the Punjab government was listed with the World Bank. He said major donors of the Punjab government included the Asian Development Bank, the UK’s Department for International Development and the Japan International Cooperation Agency. He said the chief minister’s push to “break the beggar’s bowl” was more of a political move aimed at gaining popularity than a genuine effort to improve the financial condition of the province. Finance Secretary Tariq Bajwa was unavailable for comment.
