Punjab Finance Minister Hashim Jawan Bakht said that the government will not present gimmickry of numbers in the budget while previous government misled the public with Annual Development Plan (ADP) volume and run propaganda of development on paper only.
Chairing the third meeting on Budget Formulation Strategy here on Wednesday, the minister was of the view that public will be made aware of the actual utilization of development funds versus tall claims made by the previous government. He further added that the government is cognizant of the challenges and is taking a holistic approach to dealing with the financial mismanagement left by the previous government. The PTI regime is keen on taking a more inclusive approach towards budget making and will come up with viable uplift programs which will in turn generate the necessary economicÂ
He called to increase the indigenous resource mobilization of the province and the same should be the spirit of the new local government system as we promote the model of true devolution.
The meeting was also attended by the Health Minister Dr. Yasmin Rashid, Senior Minister Aleem Khan, Education Minister Murad Raas, and Raja Humayon Yasir (for Higher Education), Commerce Minister Aslam Iqbal, Mohsin Laghari, Forest Minister Sardar Sabtain, Ijaz Nabi and Chairman Planning and Development, and secretaries of the concerned departments.
The Finance Minister stressed the need of proper planning at the conception stage before launching of development projects in order to protect the public money from any wastages. In the past, lack of planning has resulted in significant wastage of hard earned tax money in projects which has not yielded the desired outcomes.
Senior Minister Aleem Khan pointed out that if the WASA and LDA type strong institutions cannot mobilize indigenous resources and demand for development budgets, then these should be closed. He said the wastage of water cannot be controlled by running campaigns in media, rather installing meters at the water taps. Besides, he said the waste management companies should generate their indigenous resources to run the affairs.
Aslam Iqbal (Minister for Commerce) stressed the need of public private partnership for resources generation. He said if the previous government had focused on it, then the situation would be altogether changed now. He said the government would not do fund raising for the ADP.
Dr. Yasmin Rashid criticized the recruitment in health sector and asked for the new recruitments through public service commission. Besides, she asked to revisit the retirement age of the doctors as well. Dr. Murad Rass said that education department facing shortage of teachers as well as resources. He said the blunders of the previous government should be made public. Irrigation Minister pointed out the need to regulate underground water usage.