Islamabad: IMF has called for new annual development plans of all four provinces, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.
According to the sources, the development projects of Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan have been requested by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) while the governments of KPK, Balochistan, Azad Kashmir and GB are avoiding sharing their development plans with the IMF.
The IMF has asked the four provincial governments to give all the details of the sector-wise distribution of their development funds to the Planning Commission. In this regard, the Punjab and Sindh governments have shared the development plans and strategies for the next financial year with the federal government, however, KPK, Balochistan, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan are avoiding sharing their development plans.
Sources say that the Punjab government wants to increase its development plan by 7 percent to 700 billion rupees, in which 577 billion from local sources and 123 billion from external sources.
Similarly, Sindh’s development plan is estimated to be 764 billion rupees with a 32 percent increase, in which 430 billion rupees are expected to come from local sources and 334 billion rupees from external sources.
The federal government is already setting up a development program guided by the IMF proposal. The federal government has reduced the funds for provincial projects on the instructions of the IMF and has completely stopped the discretionary schemes of the members of parliament for the next financial year.