Syed Haider Imam
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May 02 2016
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Rs5.67bn ‘dormant’ portion brings down district uplift allocations
PESHAWAR: A dormant portion of Rs5.67 billion has brought down the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa district development budget for the year 2016-17 to Rs28.27 billion.
In his budget speech on Tuesday, KP finance minister Muzafar Said had announced Rs33.9 billion development funds for district governments across the province.
However, he informed the post-budget briefing at the Civil Secretariat’s cabinet room on Wednesday that though the government had allocated Rs33.9 billion for the district ADP, the Rs5.67 billion portion of it depended on the availability of funds.
Finance minister defends next budget as tax-free and balanced
“The government will ensure the payment of the remaining amount of Rs28.23 billion to the district governments in 2016-17,” he said.
The minister said the province’s Annual Development Programme valued at around Rs125 billion and that its Rs12.2 billon portion would be funded through internal borrowing.
He said the government’s finances remained under pressure due to the centre’s failure to pay the province’s net hydel profit arrears and extra expenditure caused by natural disasters.
The minister said the government had to cut down development budget due to unavailability of funds.
He defended the budget saying it was a balanced budget and had no new tax.
The minister said the government had only some minor adjustment in the existing taxes.
He said the government had increased the salary of its employees and pension 10 per cent.
The minister said the pay and pension raise and other incentives for government employees would cost the government Rs14.2 billion.
He said the size of the ADP was around Rs161 billion, including Rs36 billion foreign development assistance.
The minister said the province’s core development programme’s volume was Rs125 billion, including Rs113 billion to be provided by the government and the rest coming in through the internal commercial borrowing.
He claimed the government had increased funding for almost all major sectors in the budget.
“The education sector allocations have gone up 10pc compared to the outgoing year, health’s 28pc, social welfare and women development 23pc, police 1pc, irrigation 6pc, technical education and vocational training 12pc, sports, culture and tourism 26pc, agriculture 8pc, communication sector 16pc and pension 11pc,” he said.
The minister said the government had also earmarked Rs2.9 billion for wheat subsidy and Rs8.8 billion for payment of markup on loans, Rs11 billion for debt repatriation and house building and motor cycle advance for government employees.
He said the government would provide Rs111.58 billion to the district government salaries and Rs17.44 billion for other expenses.
The minister said Rs1.56 billion had been earmarked for tehsil municipal administration and Rs1.5 billion for local councils.
To a question about the borrowing of Rs12 billion to fund ADP projects, provincial finance secretary Ali Raza Bhutta, who was also in attendance, said the provinces were allowed to raise funds through borrowing to meet own needs under the Constitution and the National Economic Council rules.
He said KP had so far not exercised that right but was going to avail itself of that in the next fiscal.
The secretary said the budget estimates were realistic and that all targets set for the next financial year would be achieved.
He denied the current budget was a deficit budget.
KP secretary home Munir Azam and other senior officials from finance and other departments were also present on the occasion.
Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2016
KP budget 2016-17: Cadet college for girls, 200 smart schools envisaged
PESHAWAR: The establishment of the first-ever cadet college for girls and setting up 200 smart schools are prominent features of the development schemes for elementary and secondary education department reflected in the annual budget of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for year 2016-17.
The provincial government has allocated Rs12.53 billion for development schemes in elementary and secondary education department as compared to Rs11.5 billion revised estimates for the current fiscal year while original allocation was Rs15.9 billion, according to budget documents.
Besides the provincial allocation, Rs 4.462 billion will come through foreign project assistance for the development schemes in the education department.
Govt increases education budget by Rs1 billion
Keeping in view the revised estimates for the ongoing fiscal year, only Rs1 billion has been increased for education sector in the next budget. A total of 72 projects have been reflected in the budget out of which 64 are ongoing with allocation of Rs10.3 billion while eight are new schemes having allocation of Rs2.422 billion.
The establishment of cadet college in Swat (Phase-III), construction of 160 primary schools, 100 secondary schools and conversion of 100 Maktab schools into regular primary school, six cluster hostels for female teachers, reconstruction of 50 old schools and establishment of 1,300 community schools, construction of monument on the premises of Archives Library Peshawar in the name of victims Army Public School attack are also included in the education budget.
The upgradation of 50 primary schools to middle level, 50 middle schools to high level and 50 high schools to higher secondary level and standardisation of 200 higher secondary schools are also reflected in the development schemes.
No details have been given in the budget documents about the nature of the new idea of construction of 200 smart schools. The officials in education department, when contacted, expressed ignorance about the nature of the smart schools.
They said that no one knew in education department about the smart schools as it was the idea of planning and development department. The education department was not consulted about the establishment of 200 smart schools, they said.
The officials in planning and development department were not available for comments.
Finance Minister Muzaffar Said, in his budget speech, said that standardising primary education across the province and encouraging completion of full primary schooling by all children was a vision of the provincial government.
According to its vision, the provincial government is striving for addressing gender disparity by promoting gender quality, affirmative action and empowerment of women and improving quality of education infrastructure, facilities and services, he said.
HIGHER EDUCATION: The provincial government has allocated Rs4.784 billion for development schemes to be carried out in the higher education sector during year 2016-17. The revised estimates for higher education in the outgoing fiscal year were Rs 5.787.
Prominent feature of higher education budget is establishment of a university in Chitral.
The total amount allocated for higher education would be spent on 60 projects. Of the allocated amount, Rs3.638 billion has been earmarked for 45 ongoing schemes while Rs1.145 billion is specified for 15 new projects.
Establishment of 10 government colleges in the province, institute of criminology and forensic sciences at University of Peshawar and establishment of sub-campus of University of Engineering and Technology in Dir Upper are some of the important projects, reflected in budget for higher education department.
Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1264947/kp...college-for-girls-200-smart-schools-envisaged
KP health budget goes up by 18pc
PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has allocated Rs21.576 billion for healthcare in the next financial year with Rs11 billion going to the ongoing and new schemes.
The allocations are 18.29 per cent more than the last year’s for the health sector.
Unveiling the budget for 2016-17 in the provincial assembly on Tuesday, finance minister Muzaffar Said announced that Rs6 billion would be spent on 70 ongoing schemes and Rs5 billion on 16 new projects in the next fiscal to improve patient care in the province.
He said the ongoing health schemes included the establishment of the accident and emergency department at the Khyber Teaching Hospital, Peshawar, and District Headquarters Hospital, Nowshera.
The minister said the government also intended to set up skill labs at the Postgraduate Medical Institute, Peshawar, as 70 per cent of the work, which began in 2014, had been completed.
He said the 20-bedded accident and emergency department at the district headquarters hospital would be established during the current financial year at the cost of Rs59.986 million.
The minister said Rs340.069 million had been earmarked for the establishment of the Gomal Medical College, Dera Ismail Khan, work on which got underway last year at the cost of Rs2.551 billion.
He said the construction of operation theatres and mortuary at the Khyber Girls Medical College at the cost of Rs56.572 million was also part of the next year’s budget.
The minister said work on the project began during the financial year 2014-15 at the cost of Rs85.072 million to the benefit of 200 students.
He said Rs302.547 million would go to the upgradation of the Saidu Group of Hospitals for teaching purposes in Swat during the next fiscal.
The upgradation programme began last year with a total outlay of Rs1.179 billion.
The minister said the government was also extending the Insaf Health Card Programme from the current four districts to the entire province at the cost of Rs10 billion to the benefit of more than 10 million population.
He said the provision of quality health services to the people across the province was the priority of the government for which institutional reforms had been launched and an independent monitoring unit had established.
The minister said all major hospitals in the province had been given statutory autonomy under independent boards of governors.
“The focus of these initiatives is on the provision of the best possible health services to the people. Better pay packages have been introduced for health professionals,” he said.
A look at the budget document showed 18.29 per cent increase in the healthcare allocations.In the 2015-16 budget, Rs21,576.13 million was allocated for the health sector, including the provincial level tertiary care hospitals, Health Secretariat, directorates, nursing and paramedic schools and training institutes under the Peshawar Health Services Academy etc.
For the next fiscal, 2016-17, the government has earmarked Rs25,521.645 million for the health sector for provincial level offices.
A sum of Rs12.9 billion will be transferred to the district health offices. During the current financial year, 338 posts of various categories have been created in different health institutions with the financial implication of Rs36 million.
For the next financial year, 14,942 various category posts, will be created with the financial implications of Rs3.1 billion.
Among them are 13,119 of LHWs and 1,088 of Primary Health Care vaccinators (multi-purpose).
Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2016
Vocational training of transgender people planned
PESHAWAR: The Jamaat-i-Islami finance minister may have mentioned vocational and rehabilitation training for transgender people – for the first time in the history of the province – but the White Paper 2016-17 doesn’t even mention them and brackets them with ‘vulnerable groups’.
Muzaffar Said while presenting the Budget 2016-2017 in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly announced that the government would provide transgender people with vocational and rehabilitation trainings, usually imparted by the centres run by the social welfare department.
However, transgender people and civil society activists are skeptical about the effectiveness of such trainings as they say instead of coming up with a scheme specially designed for transgender people in view of their capacity and needs, vocational training in traditional crafts will be of no use.
Community doubts the effectiveness of govt initiative
“We reject these typical trainings and rehabilitation services provided by the social welfare department as we know they are not of much use to transgender people. They have not brought any change in the lives of other vulnerable groups, too,” said the Transaction Alliance working for the rights of the transgender people in the province.
“Transgender people would never learn anything at such centres. We need to have facilities run by transgender people for the transgender people since only we know our needs and talents,” Transaction Alliance president Farzana told Dawn.
She said instead of specifically mentioning the word ‘transgender’, they had been termed as ‘vulnerable groups’ by the government.
“The government should allocate finds for special schemes for us,” she demanded.
The White Paper promises the capacity building of the vulnerable groups by ‘imparting skills to make them contributory members of the society while earning livelihood for themselves.’
Qamar Naseem, a rights activist, said they were informed by the social welfare department officials that they could not use the word ‘transgender’ or Khwaja Sara in the White Paper and have termed transgender as ‘vulnerable group’.
He opposed typical trainings for the transgender people and demanded that government fulfil its promise of setting up an endowment fund for the transgender people in the province.
Farzana said earlier, the alliance was promised by adviser to the CM Mushtaq Ghani that an endowment fund would be set up with Rs200 million for the welfare of transgender people having their representatives as its members.
“We want what adviser Mushtaq Ghani promised us. We know what is good for the welfare of the transgender people and what is useless,” said Farzana who said transgender people need education, health and other skills to live life like any other citizen.
The finance minister announced vocational and rehabilitation trainings for the transgender people – for the first time in the history of the province something was announced for the transgender people.
However, the Transaction Alliance says the transgender people have been deprived of rights for long.
“They want an endowment fund as promised by CM adviser Mushtaq Ghani for the welfare of the transgender population of the province.”
The White Paper, 2016-17, which envisions to develop an integrated and comprehensive social protection system for general population of KPK especially women, deprived, poor and the most vulnerable segments of the society for the first time is going to include transgender people, as finance minister announced.
The government is going to provide capacity building trainings to the most vulnerable groups including women and children and destitute senior age group citizens, build safety nets through service chain for the welfare of the poorest and social Welfare and Women Empowerment sector.
The focus would be laid upon providing social cushion to the deprived and marginalized segments of society, especially women.
In the proposed development plan, the department included schemes for the wellbeing and safeguarding of destitute women, orphans, beggars, drug addicts and special persons. An allocation of Rs460 million has been made for total of 27 projects out of which 18 are ongoing with allocation of Rs266 million and nine are new with allocation of Rs194 million.
The upcoming projects include upgradation of National Special Education Centre Mardan upto Middle level, establishment of Model Addiction Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre in Peshawar, upgradation of Blind School Charsadda from Primary to Middle, construction of Social Welfare Complex at Nowshera, construction of Special Education Complex Chakdara Dir Lower, purchase of Land for Upgradation of School for Deaf and Dumb Children at Timergara, Lower Dir.
According to the Transaction Alliance, there are around 45, 000 transgender people in the province but they remain invisible and socially are an outcast.
The Budget 2016-2017 speech may have mentioned such people for the first time in the history of the province but the alliance says that much more is needed to provide them with skills needed according to their environment and talents.
Published in Dawn, June 15th, 201
Swiss agency to support climatic change research in KP
PESHAWAR: The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation will support research on climatic change and its impact on farming community to improve agricultural productivity in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
This was stated by country director of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation Stephanie Burri, after formally inaugurating the Climate Change Centre at the University of Agriculture Peshawar here on Tuesday.
The centre was established in 2014 with the support of the Swiss government to extend technical assistance to framers and carry out research in local context to ascertain the impact of climate on agricultural yield and take measures to cope with challenges.
[h=4]Climate change centre formally inaugurated at agriculture varsity[/h]
Ms. Burri said she was pleased to know that the university’s faculty was finding adaptation solutions to climate changes and had been playing role in developing farming.
Appreciative of university’s effort to achieve progress within a short span of time and exploring solutions for poor farmers, she said SDC wanted extension of cooperation in the area of climatic research.
The SDC country director said there were strong potential for Pak-Swiss linkages at the level of universities to enable the local population for climate change adaptation.
Vice-chancellor of the university Prof Zahoor Ahmad Swati appreciated the Swiss funding and technical support for the centre and said varsity took keen interest in the work regarding the effects of climate change and were eager to undertake expensive research for benefit of farmers. He said those changes were affecting crops, farming systems as well as farmers’ livelihoods.
“Farmers need proper advice based on sound research on how to deal with the impact of climate change on crops and therefore, we’ve established this centre,” he said.
Climate Change Centre director Dr. Jawad Ali, who was also in attendance, said the centre had conducted the much-needed research on climatic environments with the SDC support, which also funded the Livelihoods Programme Hindukush with the Swiss Intercooperation.
He said the studies conducted by the centre so far were about tolerance to heat and water stress in a number of wheat and maize varieties, and climate change and its impact on farming systems based on farmers’ knowledge and climate scenario for the next few decades for several districts.
Dr. Jawad said the centre was supporting several PhD studies on climate change to train young scientists on global warming and related issues and had established vital linkages with national and international research institutions.
On the occasion, Swiss Intercooperation country director Dr. Arjumand Nizami said the purpose of setting up the centre was to fill an institutional gap within the public sector to address the issue of climate change adaptation in a systematic manner.
Expert Dr. Mohammad Afzal said KP was highly vulnerable to climate changes due to fragile ecologies in diverse agro-ecological landscape.
He said the widespread poverty, changes in temperatures, and uncertain hydrological patterns had threatened the people’s access to water and food.
Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2016
http://i.dawn.com/large/2016/06/576064119de8a.jpg
PESHAWAR: A dormant portion of Rs5.67 billion has brought down the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa district development budget for the year 2016-17 to Rs28.27 billion.
In his budget speech on Tuesday, KP finance minister Muzafar Said had announced Rs33.9 billion development funds for district governments across the province.
However, he informed the post-budget briefing at the Civil Secretariat’s cabinet room on Wednesday that though the government had allocated Rs33.9 billion for the district ADP, the Rs5.67 billion portion of it depended on the availability of funds.
Finance minister defends next budget as tax-free and balanced
“The government will ensure the payment of the remaining amount of Rs28.23 billion to the district governments in 2016-17,” he said.
The minister said the province’s Annual Development Programme valued at around Rs125 billion and that its Rs12.2 billon portion would be funded through internal borrowing.
He said the government’s finances remained under pressure due to the centre’s failure to pay the province’s net hydel profit arrears and extra expenditure caused by natural disasters.
The minister said the government had to cut down development budget due to unavailability of funds.
He defended the budget saying it was a balanced budget and had no new tax.
The minister said the government had only some minor adjustment in the existing taxes.
He said the government had increased the salary of its employees and pension 10 per cent.
The minister said the pay and pension raise and other incentives for government employees would cost the government Rs14.2 billion.
He said the size of the ADP was around Rs161 billion, including Rs36 billion foreign development assistance.
The minister said the province’s core development programme’s volume was Rs125 billion, including Rs113 billion to be provided by the government and the rest coming in through the internal commercial borrowing.
He claimed the government had increased funding for almost all major sectors in the budget.
“The education sector allocations have gone up 10pc compared to the outgoing year, health’s 28pc, social welfare and women development 23pc, police 1pc, irrigation 6pc, technical education and vocational training 12pc, sports, culture and tourism 26pc, agriculture 8pc, communication sector 16pc and pension 11pc,” he said.
The minister said the government had also earmarked Rs2.9 billion for wheat subsidy and Rs8.8 billion for payment of markup on loans, Rs11 billion for debt repatriation and house building and motor cycle advance for government employees.
He said the government would provide Rs111.58 billion to the district government salaries and Rs17.44 billion for other expenses.
The minister said Rs1.56 billion had been earmarked for tehsil municipal administration and Rs1.5 billion for local councils.
To a question about the borrowing of Rs12 billion to fund ADP projects, provincial finance secretary Ali Raza Bhutta, who was also in attendance, said the provinces were allowed to raise funds through borrowing to meet own needs under the Constitution and the National Economic Council rules.
He said KP had so far not exercised that right but was going to avail itself of that in the next fiscal.
The secretary said the budget estimates were realistic and that all targets set for the next financial year would be achieved.
He denied the current budget was a deficit budget.
KP secretary home Munir Azam and other senior officials from finance and other departments were also present on the occasion.
Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2016
KP budget 2016-17: Cadet college for girls, 200 smart schools envisaged
PESHAWAR: The establishment of the first-ever cadet college for girls and setting up 200 smart schools are prominent features of the development schemes for elementary and secondary education department reflected in the annual budget of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for year 2016-17.
The provincial government has allocated Rs12.53 billion for development schemes in elementary and secondary education department as compared to Rs11.5 billion revised estimates for the current fiscal year while original allocation was Rs15.9 billion, according to budget documents.
Besides the provincial allocation, Rs 4.462 billion will come through foreign project assistance for the development schemes in the education department.
Govt increases education budget by Rs1 billion
Keeping in view the revised estimates for the ongoing fiscal year, only Rs1 billion has been increased for education sector in the next budget. A total of 72 projects have been reflected in the budget out of which 64 are ongoing with allocation of Rs10.3 billion while eight are new schemes having allocation of Rs2.422 billion.
The establishment of cadet college in Swat (Phase-III), construction of 160 primary schools, 100 secondary schools and conversion of 100 Maktab schools into regular primary school, six cluster hostels for female teachers, reconstruction of 50 old schools and establishment of 1,300 community schools, construction of monument on the premises of Archives Library Peshawar in the name of victims Army Public School attack are also included in the education budget.
The upgradation of 50 primary schools to middle level, 50 middle schools to high level and 50 high schools to higher secondary level and standardisation of 200 higher secondary schools are also reflected in the development schemes.
No details have been given in the budget documents about the nature of the new idea of construction of 200 smart schools. The officials in education department, when contacted, expressed ignorance about the nature of the smart schools.
They said that no one knew in education department about the smart schools as it was the idea of planning and development department. The education department was not consulted about the establishment of 200 smart schools, they said.
The officials in planning and development department were not available for comments.
Finance Minister Muzaffar Said, in his budget speech, said that standardising primary education across the province and encouraging completion of full primary schooling by all children was a vision of the provincial government.
According to its vision, the provincial government is striving for addressing gender disparity by promoting gender quality, affirmative action and empowerment of women and improving quality of education infrastructure, facilities and services, he said.
HIGHER EDUCATION: The provincial government has allocated Rs4.784 billion for development schemes to be carried out in the higher education sector during year 2016-17. The revised estimates for higher education in the outgoing fiscal year were Rs 5.787.
Prominent feature of higher education budget is establishment of a university in Chitral.
The total amount allocated for higher education would be spent on 60 projects. Of the allocated amount, Rs3.638 billion has been earmarked for 45 ongoing schemes while Rs1.145 billion is specified for 15 new projects.
Establishment of 10 government colleges in the province, institute of criminology and forensic sciences at University of Peshawar and establishment of sub-campus of University of Engineering and Technology in Dir Upper are some of the important projects, reflected in budget for higher education department.
Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2016
http://www.dawn.com/news/1264947/kp...college-for-girls-200-smart-schools-envisaged
KP health budget goes up by 18pc
PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has allocated Rs21.576 billion for healthcare in the next financial year with Rs11 billion going to the ongoing and new schemes.
The allocations are 18.29 per cent more than the last year’s for the health sector.
Unveiling the budget for 2016-17 in the provincial assembly on Tuesday, finance minister Muzaffar Said announced that Rs6 billion would be spent on 70 ongoing schemes and Rs5 billion on 16 new projects in the next fiscal to improve patient care in the province.
He said the ongoing health schemes included the establishment of the accident and emergency department at the Khyber Teaching Hospital, Peshawar, and District Headquarters Hospital, Nowshera.
The minister said the government also intended to set up skill labs at the Postgraduate Medical Institute, Peshawar, as 70 per cent of the work, which began in 2014, had been completed.
He said the 20-bedded accident and emergency department at the district headquarters hospital would be established during the current financial year at the cost of Rs59.986 million.
The minister said Rs340.069 million had been earmarked for the establishment of the Gomal Medical College, Dera Ismail Khan, work on which got underway last year at the cost of Rs2.551 billion.
He said the construction of operation theatres and mortuary at the Khyber Girls Medical College at the cost of Rs56.572 million was also part of the next year’s budget.
The minister said work on the project began during the financial year 2014-15 at the cost of Rs85.072 million to the benefit of 200 students.
He said Rs302.547 million would go to the upgradation of the Saidu Group of Hospitals for teaching purposes in Swat during the next fiscal.
The upgradation programme began last year with a total outlay of Rs1.179 billion.
The minister said the government was also extending the Insaf Health Card Programme from the current four districts to the entire province at the cost of Rs10 billion to the benefit of more than 10 million population.
He said the provision of quality health services to the people across the province was the priority of the government for which institutional reforms had been launched and an independent monitoring unit had established.
The minister said all major hospitals in the province had been given statutory autonomy under independent boards of governors.
“The focus of these initiatives is on the provision of the best possible health services to the people. Better pay packages have been introduced for health professionals,” he said.
A look at the budget document showed 18.29 per cent increase in the healthcare allocations.In the 2015-16 budget, Rs21,576.13 million was allocated for the health sector, including the provincial level tertiary care hospitals, Health Secretariat, directorates, nursing and paramedic schools and training institutes under the Peshawar Health Services Academy etc.
For the next fiscal, 2016-17, the government has earmarked Rs25,521.645 million for the health sector for provincial level offices.
A sum of Rs12.9 billion will be transferred to the district health offices. During the current financial year, 338 posts of various categories have been created in different health institutions with the financial implication of Rs36 million.
For the next financial year, 14,942 various category posts, will be created with the financial implications of Rs3.1 billion.
Among them are 13,119 of LHWs and 1,088 of Primary Health Care vaccinators (multi-purpose).
Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2016
Vocational training of transgender people planned
PESHAWAR: The Jamaat-i-Islami finance minister may have mentioned vocational and rehabilitation training for transgender people – for the first time in the history of the province – but the White Paper 2016-17 doesn’t even mention them and brackets them with ‘vulnerable groups’.
Muzaffar Said while presenting the Budget 2016-2017 in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly announced that the government would provide transgender people with vocational and rehabilitation trainings, usually imparted by the centres run by the social welfare department.
However, transgender people and civil society activists are skeptical about the effectiveness of such trainings as they say instead of coming up with a scheme specially designed for transgender people in view of their capacity and needs, vocational training in traditional crafts will be of no use.
Community doubts the effectiveness of govt initiative
“We reject these typical trainings and rehabilitation services provided by the social welfare department as we know they are not of much use to transgender people. They have not brought any change in the lives of other vulnerable groups, too,” said the Transaction Alliance working for the rights of the transgender people in the province.
“Transgender people would never learn anything at such centres. We need to have facilities run by transgender people for the transgender people since only we know our needs and talents,” Transaction Alliance president Farzana told Dawn.
She said instead of specifically mentioning the word ‘transgender’, they had been termed as ‘vulnerable groups’ by the government.
“The government should allocate finds for special schemes for us,” she demanded.
The White Paper promises the capacity building of the vulnerable groups by ‘imparting skills to make them contributory members of the society while earning livelihood for themselves.’
Qamar Naseem, a rights activist, said they were informed by the social welfare department officials that they could not use the word ‘transgender’ or Khwaja Sara in the White Paper and have termed transgender as ‘vulnerable group’.
He opposed typical trainings for the transgender people and demanded that government fulfil its promise of setting up an endowment fund for the transgender people in the province.
Farzana said earlier, the alliance was promised by adviser to the CM Mushtaq Ghani that an endowment fund would be set up with Rs200 million for the welfare of transgender people having their representatives as its members.
“We want what adviser Mushtaq Ghani promised us. We know what is good for the welfare of the transgender people and what is useless,” said Farzana who said transgender people need education, health and other skills to live life like any other citizen.
The finance minister announced vocational and rehabilitation trainings for the transgender people – for the first time in the history of the province something was announced for the transgender people.
However, the Transaction Alliance says the transgender people have been deprived of rights for long.
“They want an endowment fund as promised by CM adviser Mushtaq Ghani for the welfare of the transgender population of the province.”
The White Paper, 2016-17, which envisions to develop an integrated and comprehensive social protection system for general population of KPK especially women, deprived, poor and the most vulnerable segments of the society for the first time is going to include transgender people, as finance minister announced.
The government is going to provide capacity building trainings to the most vulnerable groups including women and children and destitute senior age group citizens, build safety nets through service chain for the welfare of the poorest and social Welfare and Women Empowerment sector.
The focus would be laid upon providing social cushion to the deprived and marginalized segments of society, especially women.
In the proposed development plan, the department included schemes for the wellbeing and safeguarding of destitute women, orphans, beggars, drug addicts and special persons. An allocation of Rs460 million has been made for total of 27 projects out of which 18 are ongoing with allocation of Rs266 million and nine are new with allocation of Rs194 million.
The upcoming projects include upgradation of National Special Education Centre Mardan upto Middle level, establishment of Model Addiction Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre in Peshawar, upgradation of Blind School Charsadda from Primary to Middle, construction of Social Welfare Complex at Nowshera, construction of Special Education Complex Chakdara Dir Lower, purchase of Land for Upgradation of School for Deaf and Dumb Children at Timergara, Lower Dir.
According to the Transaction Alliance, there are around 45, 000 transgender people in the province but they remain invisible and socially are an outcast.
The Budget 2016-2017 speech may have mentioned such people for the first time in the history of the province but the alliance says that much more is needed to provide them with skills needed according to their environment and talents.
Published in Dawn, June 15th, 201
Swiss agency to support climatic change research in KP
PESHAWAR: The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation will support research on climatic change and its impact on farming community to improve agricultural productivity in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
This was stated by country director of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation Stephanie Burri, after formally inaugurating the Climate Change Centre at the University of Agriculture Peshawar here on Tuesday.
The centre was established in 2014 with the support of the Swiss government to extend technical assistance to framers and carry out research in local context to ascertain the impact of climate on agricultural yield and take measures to cope with challenges.
[h=4]Climate change centre formally inaugurated at agriculture varsity[/h]
Ms. Burri said she was pleased to know that the university’s faculty was finding adaptation solutions to climate changes and had been playing role in developing farming.
Appreciative of university’s effort to achieve progress within a short span of time and exploring solutions for poor farmers, she said SDC wanted extension of cooperation in the area of climatic research.
The SDC country director said there were strong potential for Pak-Swiss linkages at the level of universities to enable the local population for climate change adaptation.
Vice-chancellor of the university Prof Zahoor Ahmad Swati appreciated the Swiss funding and technical support for the centre and said varsity took keen interest in the work regarding the effects of climate change and were eager to undertake expensive research for benefit of farmers. He said those changes were affecting crops, farming systems as well as farmers’ livelihoods.
“Farmers need proper advice based on sound research on how to deal with the impact of climate change on crops and therefore, we’ve established this centre,” he said.
Climate Change Centre director Dr. Jawad Ali, who was also in attendance, said the centre had conducted the much-needed research on climatic environments with the SDC support, which also funded the Livelihoods Programme Hindukush with the Swiss Intercooperation.
He said the studies conducted by the centre so far were about tolerance to heat and water stress in a number of wheat and maize varieties, and climate change and its impact on farming systems based on farmers’ knowledge and climate scenario for the next few decades for several districts.
Dr. Jawad said the centre was supporting several PhD studies on climate change to train young scientists on global warming and related issues and had established vital linkages with national and international research institutions.
On the occasion, Swiss Intercooperation country director Dr. Arjumand Nizami said the purpose of setting up the centre was to fill an institutional gap within the public sector to address the issue of climate change adaptation in a systematic manner.
Expert Dr. Mohammad Afzal said KP was highly vulnerable to climate changes due to fragile ecologies in diverse agro-ecological landscape.
He said the widespread poverty, changes in temperatures, and uncertain hydrological patterns had threatened the people’s access to water and food.
Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2016
http://i.dawn.com/large/2016/06/576064119de8a.jpg
Syed Haider Imam
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
[h=1]KP to unveil Rs505 billion annual budget today
[/h] PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government will present over Rs505 billion budget for the year 2016-17 at the provincial assembly on Tuesday (today).
Provincial Minister for Finance Muzaffar Said will present the budget during the assembly session, which will start at around 4pm. The budgetary proposals will be placed before the provincial cabinet to get its approval. The cabinet meeting is scheduled to take place at 11am on Tuesday at Civil Secretariat’s cabinet room.
Officials in the planning and development department told Dawn that total outlay of the budget was over Rs505 billion. They said that the volume of the provincial Annual Development Programme (ADP) would be Rs161 billion.
The current expenditures are estimated to be around Rs344 billion of which provincial ADP will be Rs125 billion while Rs36 billion would come through foreign assistance.
[h=4]Officials say volume of ADP will be Rs161bn[/h]
An official said that the province’s own share in the ADP financing would be about Rs113 billion and the remaining Rs12 billion would be generated through borrowing.
“Finance department from the very beginning was adamant on pitching realistic figures, which would turn out to be hard to realise like that of the ongoing year,” the official said, adding that province’s own ADP was pitched within the ceiling of Rs113 billion laid out by the finance department.
The official said that of Rs113 billion, a portion financed by the provincial government, Rs80 billion would be earmarked for the provincial ADP while Rs33.9 were allocated to the district governments across the province. The ADP comprises a total of 1,515 new and ongoing schemes in 34 sectors.
The official said that the ADP included setting up of about 200 smart schools, fully equipped district and tehsil headquarters hospitals, refurbishing of higher secondary schools, construction of Swat Expressway, agricultural uplift and integrated tourism programmes.
The ADP was revised several times during the past one month. Earlier planning and development department prepared several projections of the development programme, however, Chief Minister Pervez Khattak started review meetings with each department to finalise the ADP.
An official told Dawn that the ADP was finalised on Saturday last after several painstakingly long meetings, some of which lasted till midnight.
The official said that preparation of ADP was delayed owing to cash problem of the provincial government. Earlier this year provincial government had to cut its ADP twice and bring it to Rs113 billion from initial projection of Rs142 billion, he added.
The reason behind the slashing the ADP was unrealistically high budgetary projections proposed by the finance department, which it failed to achieve.
The finance department in its budget strategy paper-II had projected a limited fiscal space due to province’s resource constraints and proposed to keep the development budget at Rs75 billion with Rs29.829 billion local component, Rs12.811 billion district component and Rs32.884 billion foreign funded development projects.
According to finance department, it has arranged to upload the budget documents on its website soon after start of the budget speech at the provincial assembly.
A statement issued here said that the documents would include budget speech, white paper and Finance Bill 2016-17. These documents will be subsequently uploaded on website of information department as well.
Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2016
[h=1]
[/h]
[/h] PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government will present over Rs505 billion budget for the year 2016-17 at the provincial assembly on Tuesday (today).
Provincial Minister for Finance Muzaffar Said will present the budget during the assembly session, which will start at around 4pm. The budgetary proposals will be placed before the provincial cabinet to get its approval. The cabinet meeting is scheduled to take place at 11am on Tuesday at Civil Secretariat’s cabinet room.
Officials in the planning and development department told Dawn that total outlay of the budget was over Rs505 billion. They said that the volume of the provincial Annual Development Programme (ADP) would be Rs161 billion.
The current expenditures are estimated to be around Rs344 billion of which provincial ADP will be Rs125 billion while Rs36 billion would come through foreign assistance.
[h=4]Officials say volume of ADP will be Rs161bn[/h]
An official said that the province’s own share in the ADP financing would be about Rs113 billion and the remaining Rs12 billion would be generated through borrowing.
“Finance department from the very beginning was adamant on pitching realistic figures, which would turn out to be hard to realise like that of the ongoing year,” the official said, adding that province’s own ADP was pitched within the ceiling of Rs113 billion laid out by the finance department.
The official said that of Rs113 billion, a portion financed by the provincial government, Rs80 billion would be earmarked for the provincial ADP while Rs33.9 were allocated to the district governments across the province. The ADP comprises a total of 1,515 new and ongoing schemes in 34 sectors.
The official said that the ADP included setting up of about 200 smart schools, fully equipped district and tehsil headquarters hospitals, refurbishing of higher secondary schools, construction of Swat Expressway, agricultural uplift and integrated tourism programmes.
The ADP was revised several times during the past one month. Earlier planning and development department prepared several projections of the development programme, however, Chief Minister Pervez Khattak started review meetings with each department to finalise the ADP.
An official told Dawn that the ADP was finalised on Saturday last after several painstakingly long meetings, some of which lasted till midnight.
The official said that preparation of ADP was delayed owing to cash problem of the provincial government. Earlier this year provincial government had to cut its ADP twice and bring it to Rs113 billion from initial projection of Rs142 billion, he added.
The reason behind the slashing the ADP was unrealistically high budgetary projections proposed by the finance department, which it failed to achieve.
The finance department in its budget strategy paper-II had projected a limited fiscal space due to province’s resource constraints and proposed to keep the development budget at Rs75 billion with Rs29.829 billion local component, Rs12.811 billion district component and Rs32.884 billion foreign funded development projects.
According to finance department, it has arranged to upload the budget documents on its website soon after start of the budget speech at the provincial assembly.
A statement issued here said that the documents would include budget speech, white paper and Finance Bill 2016-17. These documents will be subsequently uploaded on website of information department as well.
Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2016
[h=1]
[/h]
Syed Haider Imam
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
17 June 2016
Syed Haider Imam
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
18 June 2016
Syed Haider Imam
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
19 June 2016
