Commerce Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The coalition government has decided to increase the discretionary budget for the development schemes of parliamentarians to a record Rs87 billion in order to spend an average of Rs500 million in each of the 174 constituencies of the National Assembly that voted for Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
In addition to that, many members of the National Assembly who did not vote for the PM and sitting on the other side of the isle will also receive the funding before the upcoming general elections, sources told The Express Tribune.
Sources said that it had been decided to increase the budgetary allocation for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – a name used to fund the small electricity, gas, community welfare and road schemes – by Rs19 billion.
With the fresh increase, the total SDGs budget for the current fiscal year has shot up to Rs87 billion. Sources said that the additional funds of Rs19 billion would be provided mostly by slashing the allocation of Rs18 billion for the Special Development Initiatives in the backward and poor districts of Pakistan. Shehbaz Sharif secured 174 votes in April to become the prime minister under the coalition government of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM). Each MNA will get Rs500 million for spending in their constituency, according to the sources.
Funding for some of the projects of parliamentarians will also be adjusted against the budget allocation for provinces and special areas, which will be over and above the spending of Rs87 billion.The money is not directly given to the members of National Assembly but is released for the schemes that they submit to the PM Office. The scheme is subsequently approved by a steering committee on the SDGs. “It is the federal cabinet’s decision to increase the SDGs budget by another Rs19 billion,” Ahsan Iqbal, Federal Minister for Planning and Development, confirmed to The Express Tribune. Iqbal is also the chairman of the steering committee on SDGs that approves such schemes. The spending is aimed at boosting the popularity of ruling alliance ahead of the general elections. At a joint press conference, Ahsan Iqbal said on Friday that the next general elections were not possible before the holding of population census, which was expected to be completed by March next year.
