Centre won’t fund provincial projects, except a few: NEC

The National Economic Council (NEC) on Monday formally decided to bar financing to provincial development projects from federal resources from coming fiscal year, except for merged districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 20 least developed districts (LDDs) of other provinces. A meeting of the NEC, presided over by caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar, was attended by the chief ministers of Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and federal ministers for finance, planning and communications. Punjab Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi and federal Minister for Petroleum and Power Muhammad Ali — both NEC members — were conspicuous by their absence. An official statement said the NEC set priorities and guidelines for the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) under which projects of national importance on which 80 per cent progress had been made so far should be given priority financing and only 10pc funds of the development programme be allocated for fresh projects. The NEC also decided that no development projects without detailed feasibility studies should be included in the next year budget.