Daily Times

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah Wednesday said that in the upcoming budget for fiscal year 2018-19, funds for development and non-development expenditures would be allocated for the whole financial year but authentication for utilisation of budget would be made only for four months.

Talking to media at a local hotel after inaugurating China-Pakistan Skilled and Technical Education International Conference organised by the Sindh Board of Technical Education in collaboration with other partners, the chief minister said that there were two parts of budget. “The first part is supplementary which deals with expenditures of the current financial year. Normally Sindh Assembly passes grants and if amount of grants exceeds than approved budget, sitting government is responsible to get them approved from the assembly before the end of June,” he said, adding that his government would present supplementary budget in the assembly.

On the upcoming budget, the chief minister said that there would be allocations for salary component and other non-development expenditures for the whole financial year but authentication for utilisation of budget would be made only for four months upto September 2018.”Similarly, we would allocate budget for ongoing development schemes for whole financial year 2018-19 so that they can be completed but again authentication for their utilisation would be made upto September 2018,” he said. It would help next government to make changes as per their requirements, he added.

On his and two other chief minister’s walkout from the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting, Murad said that composition of NEC is very simple. “It has 13 members-four chief ministers and their four nominees come to eight and prime minister who heads NEC and his four nominees come to 13,” he said, adding that NEC is a constitutional body and is bound to advise provincial and the federal governments for a balanced development based on regional equity.

He said the federal government which wanted to approve new PSDP had played a game with the smaller provinces, particularly with Sindh. “The National Highways Authority had been given Rs 15 billion schemes for 2018-19 but Sindh was given only 2 percent share. Water sector/irrigation had been given Rs 27.5 billion in which Sindh had only Rs 300 million, or 1.1 percent, share. Higher Education Commission had 22 new schemes worth Rs 6 billion in which Sindh was given only Rs250 million, and, similarly, power sector had been given Rs 6 billion new schemes in which Sindh was given only Rs 125 million for village electrification schemes,” he said.”This shows that they had a plan to deprive smaller provinces since no balanced and equitable share was kept in mind while framing the new PSDP,” he added.

While addressing the conference, the chief minister said the initiative would help different technical institutes of the province to work with leading Chinese institutes as their partners or under their affiliations.”CPEC projects are going to open a floodgate of employment opportunities. And there is a dire need for skilled staff and specialists or experts to establish and run the new projects,” he said. “CPEC projects also demand that our new generation must learn Chinese along with English language so that the communication gap between the two nations could be filled,” he added.

The chief minister also performed the ground-breaking of new Convent of Jesus and MarySchool at Clifton Polo Ground. On the occasion, Murad said that he was proud to perform ground-breaking of the new campus of school where his leader and first woman prime minister Benazir Bhutto had received her education.

Published in Daily Times, April 26^th 2018.