HYDERABAD: While the federal government of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf has increased the next financial year’s public sector development programme (PSDP) by Rs200 billion, the Sindh government feels that the province is being ignored in the PSDP schemes again.

The PSDP is meant for development sector for four provinces. The annual plan coordination committee (APCC), chaired by deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, had on May 27 finalised it at Rs900bn — Rs200bn up from the last fiscal year — to achieve an economic growth rate of 4.8pc during FY22.

“There is indeed a raise of Rs200bn in the overall PSDP. We just need to understand where we [Sindh] are placed in the development schemes,” said PPP leader and Chief Minister’s Adviser Nisar Ahmed Khuhro.

Mr Khuhro, who holds the portfolio of works and services, said that the federal government had dropped 17 schemes proposed by Sindh for the PSDP 2021-22 with no plausible reasons.

The federal government had come up with a Rs444bn regional equalisation plan for the four provinces. Although the federal government had selected 14 districts of Sindh in the equalisation plan it allocated a paltry sum of Rs20bn, out of Rs444bn, for those districts.

“The Sindh government is not consulted for selection of the districts. It’s good the districts are to be brought at par with the others. But is Rs20bn allocation realistic?” asked a government source.

Of the Rs444bn allocation, Rs134bn is covered under the PSDP while an amount of Rs74bn is reserved for 50 projects under non-PSDP funding. An amount of Rs236bn is kept for the public-private partnership (PPP) mode and for its utilisation government had to find a vendor/partner. “This means the federal government is not directly committing the Rs236bn under PSDP. Funding through PPP is considered insecure funding in finances,” said the source.

Centre avoids direct funding for Karachi package

A close look at the PSDP component shows that a major portion of the much-hyped Rs1.14 trillion Karachi Transfor­mation Plan (KTP) announced by Prime Minister Imran Khan is left at the mercy of public-private partnership as the federal government has avoided direct funding under the PSDP.

The allocation for Karachi in FY2021-22 stands at Rs98.2bn. The federal government had chosen to include Rs124bn in the PSDP as well, but the amount was part of the funds lying with the Supreme Court under its Bahria Town land settlement case.

Officials said that the actual size of the centre’s allocation in the Rs1.14tr KTP was Rs484bn because a project of freight corridor of the Karachi Port Trust with an estimated cost of Rs131bn was also a part of it.

A sum of Rs509bn that constitutes a part of the KTP would be arranged through the PPP model of financing.

“The federal government is not doing something substantive in the KTP even though it speaks volumes about it,” Mr Khuhro said.

“The federal government is not ready to build the Jamshoro-Sehwan part of highway for which we [Sindh government] had paid Rs7bn. PSDP is silent on it too,” he said.

“Can we ask why our 17 proposed schemes are not approved in the PSDP?” Mr Khuhro asked.

While the centre had announced ample funds for the National Highway Authority (NHA), no new scheme was given for Sindh in the PSDP.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2021