ISLAMABAD, May 28: With the government set to present its fifth budget on June 1, coalition partners are pressurising the PPP to spare adequate funds for new and ongoing development projects in their constituencies.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and his financial team separately met legislators from the MQM, ANP and Fata on Monday and listened to their lists of priority projects which they wanted to be completed before the general elections.

According to sources close to Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, the government being in a tight corner is finding it difficult to present a budget which the PPP and coalition partners want in the last year of the government.

ANP: The ANP lawmakers, led by Senator Haji Mohammad Adeel, discussed with the prime minister projects the party believed were of great importance in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The ANP has been running the provincial government since March 2008.

According to a press release, the delegation said completion of the Chashma

Right Bank Canal and Munda Dam was of immense importance for agriculture in the province and for controlling floods throughout the country.

Dr Sheikh promised that the finance ministry would allocate adequate funds to meet the demand for land acquisition for the Kurram Tangi Dam.

The finance secretary said France had offered a soft loan of 12 million euros for the project.

The meeting was informed that work on the long-delayed Lawari Tunnel would be resumed and the government had released funds for it.

The delegation assured the prime minister that the ANP would continue to firmly stand by the PPP for the sake of democracy, rule of law and Constitution.

The lawmakers handed over to the prime minister a list of projects they wanted to be taken up in their constituencies.

MQM: Talking to the MQM delegation, led by its parliamentary leader Dr Farooq Sattar, the prime minister said there would be no new taxes in the budget, electricity production would be the top priority, 100,000 jobs would be created and the poor would get relief through the Benazir Income Support Programme.

He said food security had been achieved as a result of policies of incentives given to the agriculture sector and Pakistan had become a wheat and sugar exporting country.

The delegation discussed various projects and priorities for the Annual Development Programme.

On top of the MQM list was Lyari Expressway in Karachi, another much-delayed plan. It was decided that work on the expressway would be accelerated.

The delegation was informed that a Malaysian firm had finalised arrangements to undertake the Karachi-Hyderabad M-9 Motorway project.

FATA: Senators and MNAs from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, led by Muneer Khan Orakzai, also presented a list of projects to the prime minister.

The government agreed to their proposal to set up a top of the line hospital in the region.

The financial team agreed in principle to pursue projects for setting up a medical college, a cadet college and an information technology university for the people of Fata.