ISLAMABAD  -   Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Professor Ahsan Iqbal on Wednesday said the incumbent government was making its best possible efforts to create a balance between available resources and existing expenditures aimed at avoiding the debt quagmire.

“Without creating this balance, it will be impossible to come out of it, if stuck,” the minister said in a televised address during a meeting he chaired on projects executed under the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP). He said if the development budget relied on borrowed money, it was the responsibility of everyone to ensure its transparent utilization, without allowing any leakage or misuse.

Ahsan Iqbal directed all Principal Accounting Officers to exercise zero tolerance against any leakage or misuse of the resources allocated for development projects. “Funds must be utilized for their intended purpose,” he stressed.

Regarding the incorporation of development projects in the next PSDP, the planning minister instructed the relevant authorities to review the development portfolio and prioritize ‘advanced stage’ projects that have completed 70 percent of their work. Additionally, he specified that ‘high impact’ national priority projects should be given second priority, and all ‘low priority projects’ should be capped unless the necessary resources become available.

He said had the policies introduced by the PML-N government in its previous tenures continued, the country’s development budget would now be around Rs3,000 billion, compared to the existing PSDP size of around Rs1100 billion against Rs29,00 billion demands of the ministries. He criticized that almost 40 percent of the federal government’s total PSDP allocations were diverted to street-level projects of provinces during 2018-22, compared to only 14 percent during 2013-18.

He pointed out that due to mismanagement and inefficiency, the previous government allowed undue emphasis on street/local level projects, consuming 40 percent of the share and leaving the country with only 60 percent of resources to execute projects of national importance and debt payments. He said the country was in dire need of judicious utilization of available resources to put it on a sustainable path of development and prosperity.