KARACHI: Sukkur and Khairpur top the list of districts where the education department-approved development schemes could not be started during the year 2011-12, Planning and Development Minister Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani has said.

Responding to legislators’ queries during Sindh Assembly’s Tuesday session, chaired by Deputy Speaker Shehla Raza, he said most development schemes of the education department were initiated in Umerkot and Sanghar during that period.

Tuesday’s Question Hour, unlike Monday’s, went on smoothly without any disruption from opposition parties though Mr Bijarani, who is a senior parliamentarian, gave outdated information and most of the time complained about not having latest figures.

Ms Raza asked departmental officials to provide up-to-date information to the minister so that he could present that during Question Hour.

Numerous education dept projects could not be launched in two districts

Responding to Muttahida Qaumi Movement legislator Naila Muneer’s question about the status of Sukkur and Khairpur schemes, the minister said 213 units had been approved for the former but work on 208 could not be started, whereas, 297 units had been approved for the latter, which was also former chief minister Qaim Ali Shah’s home district, but work on 134 could not be initiated.

While giving answer to MQM’s lawmaker Rana Ansar, the minister said 1,661 schemes had been completed during 2011-12 and 2012-13, while work on 2,463 was in progress and 1,087 could not be started.

Mr Bijarani said 1,323 new schemes were included in the annual development programme (ADP) for the year 2012-13. There had been 59 health, 52 education and 615 transport schemes. He conceded while speaking to MQM’s Zafar Kamali that health and education should have been given more priority than transport.

Responding to a question by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Khurram Sher Zaman, the senior politician said a scheme took time according to its size for completion.

“Initially, a large number of schemes were included in the ADP but funds for them were not released, therefore, they stretched over several years. We are now focusing on smaller schemes so that they receive due funds and get completed on time,” he said.

The minister further said Thar coalfield had been a Rs5 billion project and was included in the ADP for 2008-09 but funds were not released for it, therefore, they had to drop it.

“It is now being implemented through public-private partnership,” he said.

The minister, however, did not respond to MQM legislator Sardar Ahmed’s question, who wanted to know the cost of the project after it had been made a public-private project.

PTI’s Samar Khan pointed out that answers were given to legislators’ questions after several years which killed their importance. Minister Bijarani agreed and said he had already directed departments to send replies to the assembly within 10 days after receiving the questions.

Ms Raza said sometimes questions demanded thorough research and therefore departments took considerable time to send their replies.

Written reply to a question said there was no plan to establish planning commission in Sindh.

MQM’s Saleem Rajput, Dewan Chawla, Zubair Khan; PML-F’s Nand Kumar, Saeed Nizamani; Pakistan Peoples Party’s Kulsoom Chandio and others participated in the discussion.

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2017