NEC meeting becomes controversial even before its convening

ISLAMABAD: The meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC) has become controversial even before its convening due to the reservations of three provinces.

The governments of Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have opposed the halting of provincial projects and also refused to continue them on their own.

Sources said that the three provinces have advised leaving the decision of the future of the provincial projects to the next elected government.

According to the sources, the three provinces are neither in favour of halting the provincial projects funded by the federal development budget nor are they ready to execute them themselves. Therefore, the provinces have advised leaving the decision of the provincial projects’ future to the next elected government.

The sources said Sindh has declared that the province is facing financial difficulties, so it is not in favour of halting the projects. However, Sindh has supported the stopping of releasing additional funds for the schemes of parliamentarians.

The sources added that KP has also opposed the halting of the provincial projects due to financial difficulties, while Balochistan has proposed to continue the projects under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP).

The sources also said the NEC meeting with the caretaker prime minister in chair is scheduled to be held on January 29. The meeting will consider halting 76 provincial projects with zero progress worth Rs121 billion and removing them from the federal development budget.

Amounts totalling Rs34.4 billion have been allocated for the 76 provincial projects with zero progress in the current financial year’s budget. The sources said that there is also a proposal to ban provincial projects from the PSDP in the future.

They added that the meeting would also consider the proposal to impose a ban on releasing additional funds for the schemes of parliamentarians.