No Gimmickry Of Numbers In Budget; Minister Assures

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 19th Sep, 2018 ) :Punjab Finance Minister Hashim Jawan Bakhat said on Wednesday that provincial government would not present gimmickry of numbers in the upcoming budget, while the previous government cheated the public with Annual Development Plan (ADP) volume and focused on propaganda of development only.

He was addressing the third meeting of Resources Mobilization Committee here, which was attended by Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid, Senior Minister Aleem Khan, education Minister Murad Raas, Higher Education Minister Raja Hamayon Yasir, Commerce Minister Aslam Iqbal, Irrigation Minister Mohsin Laghari, Forest Minister Sardar Sabtain, IJaz Nabi and Chairman P&D, secretaries of departments concerned.

The finance minister claimed that previous Punjab government made hollow slogans of mega development projects with development partnering countries including Turkey and other countries. However, there were no such development programmes existed in the province while the budget deficit was worrisome, he said, adding that fact would be shared with the public soon. He called for increasing the indigenous resource mobilizations and keeping the space of resource mobilization in the new local government system as well.

He stressed the need for proper planning before launching of its development projects in order to protect the public money from wastage.

Senior Minister Aleem Khan pointed out that if the WASA and LDA type strong institutions could not mobilize indigenous resources and demand for development budgets then these should be closed down. He said the wastage of water could not be controlled by running campaigns in media, rather installing meters at the water connections. He added that waste management companies should generate their indigenous resources to run the affairs.

Commerce Minister Mian Aslam Iqbal emphasized upon public-private partnership for resources generation. Had previous government focused on it, the situation would have been different and not that worse. He said the government would not go for fund raising for the ADP.

Health Minsiter Dr. Yasmin Rashid criticized the recruitment in health sector and asked for new recruitments through public service commission, besides revising the retirement age of the doctors as well.

On this occasion, Education Minister Dr. Murad Rass said that Education department facing shortage of teachers as well as resources. He said the wrong doing of the previous government should be made public.

The irrigation minister spoke about requirement of new tube-wells for Lahore and other unavoidable expenditures.