Uplift funds skewed in favour of PDM lawmakers’ projects
Discretionary spending by parliamentarians under the Sustainable Development Goals Achievement Programme (SAP) accounted for more than a third of the total federal development expenditure in the first four months of the fiscal year, official data showed on Wednesday. The disproportionate funding towards parliamentarians’ schemes under SAP, whose discretionary funds are considered a tool to muster political support, continues despite a change of government in August and raises concerns over equitable resource distribution, especially during an election year. Since the vast majority of lawmakers in the previous assembly belonged to the Pakistan Democratic Movement-led coalition, the SAP spending seems skewed in favour of their projects. This will be the third year in a row that the country’s under-funded infrastructure development will remain constrained by drastic cuts, even in funds allocated by the parliament. Last year, the development programme was marred by massive floods.