Repeated shake-up of bureaucracy affects work on uplift projects

HAMID WALEED
LAHORE (April 03 2009)

The major shake-up in the provincial bureaucracy and the repeated transfers and postings with the restoration of the provincial government of Shahbaz Sharif has further affected the pace of work on development projects in Punjab, on which work was already moving ahead with snails pace or in some case in cessation due to the recent-past transfers and postings made by Governor Punjab Salman Taseer following the province came under direct rule of centre.

Sources in the Planning & Development (P&D) department told Business Recorder that the department had become a shuttlecock between the rulers of the province, causing undue delays in development work across the province. The sources added further that development spending in the province had come to zero level, as no one was ready to release allocated funds on the fear that anyone from among the rulers might put screw on them up once they overcome their opponents politically.

"Speedy changes in the provincial bureaucracy has brought the development spending to a halt in the province," said the sources, adding, "Had the political system remained intact, the development situation in the province would have been different today." According to the sources, the development spending in the province was lurking around 24 per cent despite the lapse of three quarters of the current fiscal year.

The Punjab government had announced Rs 160 billion Annual Development Programme (ADP) for the current fiscal, out which only Rs 40 - 50 billion have been spent. It may be noted that the Chief Minister Punjab had slashed the development funds of MPs from Rs 80 million to Rs 40 million to avoid misappropriation of funds.

However, no major spending is made on this front as well despite the fact the 90 per cent of the allocations to all MPs have been released in the province. Sources in P&D department said that the Chief Minister Punjab was holding a review meeting of the spending by the provincial MPs very soon. Also, the Chief Minister will review the overall spending in the province in coming week.

It has been learnt on good authority that the P&D has changed its development strategy for next quarter and major spending is likely to be made in purchase of equipment in health, education and other social sectors. The P&D sources are expecting that the total spending would reach to around Rs 90 billion by the end of current fiscal, which means that the Punjab government would be able to spend about 50 per cent of the total allocation for the fiscal year.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2009

TOKYO
(April 03 2009)

Stabilising Pakistans economy and fighting poverty there are key to combating the insurgency in neighbouring Afghanistan, a special adviser to Japans prime minister said ahead of a Pakistan donors conference this month.

"It has become much, much more clearly recognised that unless you can manage the tribal areas of Pakistan from where a lot of the Taliban is gaining strength, you cannot deal with Afghan security," Sadako Ogata, the special envoy for Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso to the two countries, told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.

Ogata, who was high commissioner for the UN refugee agency from 1991 to 2000, said while various factors such as religion and politics have encouraged a Taliban insurgency, those struggling from poverty are the most vulnerable.

"The poor people having very little resources would be easily recruited to radical action," the 81-year-old envoy said. Nuclear-armed, and a hiding place for al Qaeda, Pakistan has become a foreign policy nightmare for the West. Pakistans leaders know al Qaeda is encouraging a Taliban insurgency in Pakistani tribal lands bordering Afghanistan as they seek to destabilise the Muslim nation of 170 million people.

Japan and the World Bank will host a Pakistan donors conference in Tokyo on April 17, which Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari will be attending. Pakistan is hoping that the meeting of potential donors, including the United States, will yield billions of dollars in loans needed to pull the economy round. Ogata said she does not know the amount of the pledge that is being worked out.

A related gathering on the same day will also discuss political support for the South Asian country. Ogata, who now heads the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA), said Tokyos efforts for Afghanistan will continue to focus on socio-economic reconstruction and expressed doubts on the Japanese military playing a role on the ground there.

Japans pacifist constitution restricts its participation in military activities overseas and forbids the use of force to settle international disputes. There have been exceptions such as Iraq, Ogata said, where Japan has dispatched ground troops on a non-combat mission that ended in 2006, adding.

"But they were in a very secure area and secluded. Now I dont think thats the kind of operation that is possible in Afghanistan." Around 130 Japanese civilians, mostly from the embassy or JICA, are based in Afghanistan. Most Japanese non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have withdrawn after Taliban insurgents captured 23 South Korean church workers in Afghanistan in 2007.

Copyright Reuters, 2009