PESHAWAR, June 23: Former speaker of NWFP Assembly Abdul Akbar Khan has proposed to the provincial legislature to enact a law for the provincial public accounts and budget related matters as the annual budget has been regulated for over a period of 70 years by the rules made by the governor.

Mr Khan, himself had been deputy speaker and speaker of the assembly, said this while commenting on the annual budget on the floor of the House on Monday. He said they could not propose even a five rupee cut into the budget, because it was a carry-over of the 1937 budget framed under the Indian Act of 1935. He observed that the budget statement was a copy of the 1937 budget format and every year bureaucracy would change its figures and dates.

He said it was not the budget of the elected government, because the House had failed to make legislation as enshrined in the Article 119 of the 1973 Constitution. He said it was a budget which was being regulated by the laws made by the governor. This House could not bring any change into it, he added.

He said if the budget would have been framed two months ago, lawmakers would have a discussion on it in their respective standing committees. He said the process would be in the interest of the province, but now they were discussing it in vain. He said people were complaining about growing price hike, as their purchasing power had decreased. He said people were expecting that there would be a relief for them in the budget but there was nothing for them in it.

He said that provincial ministers were supposed to drive 1500 CC vehicles, but they were sitting in 3000 CC vehicle, which was a mockery of the democracy. He said an amount of Rs160 million had been allocated for the chief minister and his cabinet but it might go beyond Rs250 million. While on the other hand, he said, the government had scrapped the contracts of doctors and lectures. The government, he said, had earmarked an amount of Rs70 million for the accommodations of its ministers.

He said the government had sanctioned posts of personal assistants and drivers for the former chief ministers and chief secretaries, which was unlawful and unethical. He said the government had earmarked Rs350 million for establishment department, but it had spent Rs860 million. He asked where this public money had gone. He proposed to the government to ask federal government to pay it extra 12 per cent from the divisible pool for the infrastructure being used by the Afghan refugees.

He said food subsidy had become a ‘black hole’ and the province needed Rs21 billion to meet it. He said subsidy would eat up entire development projects. He said Pasco was a federal agency and it could not turn down the demand of a province.

Shagufta Malik, Zarqa Bibi, Shazia Tehmas, Shakeel Bashir Umarzai, Fazalullal Khan, Alamgir Khan, Qabl-i-Hasan, Atiqur Rehman, Asif Bhatti, Mohammad Zameen Khan, Uzma Khan, Dr Haider Ali, Shah Hussain, Ateef Khan, and Said Raheem spoke on the budget and requirements of their constituencies. Senior Minister Rahimdad Khan said it was poor-friendly budget, which was without any new tax.

He said that their coalition government had preferred to pump more funds into the ongoing schemes instead of floating new schemes. He said the next budget would be better than this one, because they had a little time to prepare this document.

Finance Minister Mohammad Humayun Khan said the government had taken some basic steps to streamline its finances. He thanked all the lawmakers for their suggestions about the budget and said austerity measures would be adopted in the interests of the people.