Balochistan government has decided not to endorse the Annual Plan Co-ordination Committee (APPC) decision of dropping Rs 60 billion Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) of the province for the next fiscal year and would take up the issue to the National Economic Council (NEC), it was learnt.
The NEC meeting is expected to be held with Prime Minister in the Chair on May 21, which would be attended by the provincial chief ministers to approve budget for the next fiscal year. Sources told Business Recorder that Balochistan delegation led by the Finance Minister and Minister for Planning and Development flew for Quetta on Saturday after waiting for two days as no one from Finance Ministry and Planning Commission contacted them in the wake of their APCC boycott.
"We have waited for two days in the federal capital but no one contacted us" a member of the delegation said deletion of Rs 60 billion provincial projects forced them to boycott the APPC. Of the total Rs 60 billion projects deleted by the APCC, he said adding that the Rs 18 billion were for ongoing projects of the ministries devolved after the passage of 18th Constitutional Amendment and Rs 32 billion regular PSDP.
He said that the Chief Minister of Balochistan would take up the matter at the NEC. The slash in the PSDP, they said would halt even some of the mega projects started in 2001 by the then government including Gwadar Development Authority (GDA) and Quetta Water Supply project.
Apart from this, they said, some important on-going projects of National Highway Authority (NHA) and Higher Education Commission (HEC) have also been deleted from the next year''s PSDP. Another official said Rs 7 billion road projects designed to link Balochistan with Punjab and other provinces were also deleted from the next year PSDP. He said that APCC has finalised the PSDP in the absence of one province that would not endorse its decision for finalisation of the PSDP.