KP Assembly passes supplementary budget

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Friday passed the Rs48.74 billion supplementary budget as all the 53 demands for grants were approved after the movers withdrew their cut motions.

The supplementary budget has been raised to Rs48.74 billion from Rs47.26 billion as presented by finance minister on June 7 as the Education Department’s demand for grant was increased from Rs2.9 billion to Rs3.62 billon.

Earlier, during the debate on cut motions, the opposition members Sardar Hussain Babak of ANP, Sahibzada Sanaullah and Fakhre Azam of PPP and Mian Ziaur Rahman of PML-N criticised the government for the supplementary budget and termed it its failure.

Minister for Health Shahram Khan told the House that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led government recruited 3,600 doctors to overcome the shortage.

He said that another 3,000 doctors would also be recruited. He said Rs12 billion were required for purchase of equipment for hospitals. The minister said that land had been acquired for the construction of hospital in Balakot.

Minister for Higher Education Mushtaq Ghani told the House the government had established 20 new colleges and 50 more were under construction.The minister added that women universities were established in Mardan and Charsadda. He said new universities were being set up in Buner and Chitral.

He said the government was giving priority to education and a Higher Education Academy had been set up for training of newly recruited teachers. The minister said three libraries with auditoriums had been established and four more were being set up in the districts.

He assured the House that classes at the Balakot College would be started soon. The government had signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Austria for jointly running a university in Haripur, Mushtaq Ghani added.

The minister informed the House that BS programmes were being further extended as Bachelors and Masters (BA, MA) programmes were being wound up phase-wise. He said Board of Governors (BoGs) were being formed at college level to improve the system of checks and balances in education.

Mushtaq Ghani told the House that last year online admission system was introduced in 36 colleges that would be raised to 100 percent this year and the upper age limit for female had been relaxed.

Minister for Local Government and Rural Development Inayatullah said the KP LG system was best of all as it was in accordance with the Section 140-A of the Constitution. He said the recruitment of union council secretaries and class-IV employees was assigned to deputy commissioners but they couldn’t do it and the secretaries were recruited through the National Testing Service (NTS).

Minister for Public Health Engineering Shah Farman said water supply schemes would be executed in southern districts to overcome the drinking water shortage. He said schemes were being provided on need base and where needed water supply projects would be executed. The assembly session was prorogued sine die after passage of the supplementary budget.