$500m fall out of Punjab govt’s ‘broken beggar bowl’

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s rhetoric-crooning has cost the province $500 million direct aid for development projects after he announced to have broken the begging bowl and publicly said his government would not take any aid from the United States.
This amount had to be given to Punjab for the development projects initiated by the provincial as well as the federal government. A source told Pakistan Today that after the chief minister publicly announced not to take any foreign aid, particularly under the USAID programme, the release of $500 million to the province was stopped forthwith. As this rang alarm bells in the provincial Finance Ministry, the chief minister realised that a tactical mistake had been made and he directed the Planning and Development Department to write to the donors’ club for restoration of $500 million aid to the province.
“The club refused to give $500 million aid directly to the province but agreed to provide this amount through the DFID (the UK government’s Department For International Development),” the source said, adding that the Punjab government had no choice but to accept the aid through the British channel. An official, who is privy to this development, sarcastically said: “We have broken a bowl to beg from the United States but we have bought another to beg from Britain.”