PTI-led coalition in KP has taken no fresh foreign loans, grants

[Leader]

PTI-led coalition in KP has taken no fresh foreign loans, grants

Though the coalition government led by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is being criticised by its political opponents for accepting foreign assistance and loans amounting to Rs35 billion for the province while staging protests against US drone strikes and blocking Nato supply lines, but the fact remains that it hasn’t received any new grant or loan during its six-month rule.



According to the budget documents, all these loans and grants were committed during the previous coalition government led by the Awami National Party (ANP) to implement its ambitious agenda laid down in the Comprehensive Development Strategy and Post-Conflict Need Assessment (PCNA).



A recent meeting of the provincial cabinet held in Peshawar was informed by the relevant officials from the finance department that the PTI-headed government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has not contracted any new loans and grants from foreign organisations, governments and donors and has no plan to accept grants with political conditions.



A high-ranking government official privy to the last meeting of the cabinet said the criticism against the PTI-led coalition government for the loans and grants taken by the province is political rather than logical.



Talking to this scribe, he said the Finance Department officials had informed the cabinet that foreign assistance to the province was provided by the federal government through Economic Affairs Division (EAD), Islamabad.



According to the official, who wished anonymity, it includes both loans and grants. “Loans are provided by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank on lower mark-up and standard terms and conditions. The grants-in-aid are provided by a host of aid agencies,” he said.



“All foreign loans are handled by the federal government. These loans are used for the financing of specified developmental projects under an agreement between the respective governments. The relending terms and conditions of the loans to the provincial government are the same as agreed by the federal government with the loan-giving agencies,” the official added.



He said a number of foreign loans are under verification between provincial and federal governments and the disbursement could still be stopped by the federal government to the project executing agencies. “Grants are provided for poverty reduction and meeting Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Education, health, justice, local government system development, energy and power and environment are among the focus sectors of MDGs’ initiatives,” he said.



The official said the budget for the financial year 2013-14, which was mainly worked out by the caretakers in the province, has a total size of Rs344 billion with Annual Development Programme (ADP) of Rs118 billion, including the foreign assistance component of Rs35 billion.



“The foreign assistance portfolio in the ADP is 30 percent in which the share of grants is 88 percent while ratio of loans is 12 percent. The total size of foreign loans in the provincial budget is Rs4.30 billion while the grants are estimated at Rs30.69 billion,” he said.



He said the major chunk of these loans is being provided by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Asian Development Bank (ADB). The JICA is providing Rs3 billion in loan and it has also committed a grant of Rs514.195 million, while the ADB is providing Rs1.30 billion loan to the provincial government during the current fiscal.



The official said the rest of the Rs30 billion grants are provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Department for International Development (DFID) of UK, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ-German Society for International Cooperation), JICA, Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF), Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KFW), UNDP, Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC), World Bank, Italian Department-Swap, CVF Japan, NICEF, INL and European Union (EU) in accordance with international agreements and commitments which are obligatory as the developed countries and institutions need to spend at least one percent of their GDP in social development projects in the developing states.



The official said the release of the foreign assistance is subject to completion of certain formalities and utilisation generally remained 20-30 percent of the committed amount. “The provincial government is also making repayment of old foreign loans along with mark-up as per the agreed schedule and only in the current financial year it is going to repay the foreign loans of Rs4.38 billion,” he concluded.

 

[pkuser2k12]

I have posted a source by news International(jang/geo) who are not at good terms with pti but even they reported that loans were taken by anp and no loan is taken by ptis government

PTI in KPK has not taken any loans and grants from foreign organizations, governments and donors




​

Riaz Khan Daudzai Monday, December 02, 2013
From Print Edition





PESHAWAR: Though the coalition government led by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is being criticised by its political opponents for accepting foreign assistance and loans amounting to Rs35 billion for the province while staging protests against US drone strikes and blocking Nato supply lines, but the fact remains that it hasn’t received any new grant or loan during its six-month rule.




According to the budget documents, all these loans and grants were committed during the previous coalition government led by the Awami National Party (ANP) to implement its ambitious agenda laid down in the Comprehensive Development Strategy and Post-Conflict Need Assessment (PCNA).




A recent meeting of the provincial cabinet held in Peshawar was informed by the relevant officials from the finance department that the PTI-headed government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has not contracted any new loans and grants from foreign organizations, governments and donors and has no plan to accept grants with political conditions.




A high-ranking government official privy to the last meeting of the cabinet said the criticism against the PTI-led coalition government for the loans and grants taken by the province is political rather than logical.




Talking to this scribe, he said the Finance Department officials had informed the cabinet that foreign assistance to the province was provided by the federal government through Economic Affairs Division (EAD), Islamabad.




According to the official, who wished anonymity, it includes both loans and grants. “Loans are provided by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank on lower mark-up and standard terms and conditions. The grants-in-aid are provided by a host of aid agencies,” he said.




“All foreign loans are handled by the federal government. These loans are used for the financing of specified developmental projects under an agreement between the respective governments. The relending terms and conditions of the loans to the provincial government are the same as agreed by the federal government with the loan-giving agencies,” the official added.




He said a number of foreign loans are under verification between provincial and federal governments and the disbursement could still be stopped by the federal government to the project executing agencies. “Grants are provided for poverty reduction and meeting Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Education, health, justice, local government system development, energy and power and environment are among the focus sectors of MDGs’ initiatives,” he said.




The official said the budget for the financial year 2013-14, which was mainly worked out by the caretakers in the province, has a total size of Rs344 billion with Annual Development Programme (ADP) of Rs118 billion, including the foreign assistance component of Rs35 billion.




“The foreign assistance portfolio in the ADP is 30 percent in which the share of grants is 88 percent while ratio of loans is 12 percent. The total size of foreign loans in the provincial budget is Rs4.30 billion while the grants are estimated at Rs30.69 billion,” he said.




He said the major chunk of these loans is being provided by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Asian Development Bank (ADB). The JICA is providing Rs3 billion in loan and it has also committed a grant of Rs514.195 million, while the ADB is providing Rs1.30 billion loan to the provincial government during the current fiscal.




The official said the rest of the Rs30 billion grants are provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Department for International Development (DFID) of UK, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ-German Society for International Cooperation), JICA, Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF), Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KFW), UNDP, Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC), World Bank, Italian Department-Swap, CVF Japan, NICEF, INL and European Union (EU) in accordance with international agreements and commitments which are obligatory as the developed countries and institutions need to spend at least one percent of their GDP in social development projects in the developing states.




The official said the release of the foreign assistance is subject to completion of certain formalities and utilisation generally remained 20-30 percent of the committed amount. “The provincial government is also making repayment of old foreign loans along with mark-up as per the agreed schedule and only in the current financial year it is going to repay the foreign loans of Rs4.38 billion,” he concluded.






SOURCE



The News International(Jang/Geo)



PTI-led coalition in KP has taken no fresh foreign loans, grants - thenews.com.pk

 

[Crypto]

still many will not believe

 

[CrazyPaki]

still many will not believe

let them live in denial then cuz they deserve leaders like NS and Zardari

 

[niaz]

That may be so but PTI gov't is culpable of indirectly aiding & abetting terrorists and extremists thru complete inaction. KPK ministers are such cowards that no one even dared to attend funeral of Aitzaz Hassan in Hangu which embarrassed Imran Khan so much that he was compelled to publically reprimand KPK PTI leaders. Here is a very apt article about the confused state of PTI.

PTI’s indecisiveness
BASIL NABI MALIK


Published 2014-01-21 07:35:59
WHEN the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) wrested away power from the Awami National Party (ANP) in KP in general elections last year, it had been hoped that the politics of expediency would give way to good governance and clear policies in the province. However, at least with regard to the menace of terrorism, the hopes of the citizens seem to have been misplaced.

The PTI, for all its rhetoric, has remained slow in tackling the issue of terrorism, or in even devising a coherent policy to effectively neutralise internal threats. Conversely, the Pakistani Taliban have increased their attacks on policemen, the military, successfully carried out a brazen jail-break, and increased activities that entail extortion, threats and intimidation in order to frighten the populace into submission.

In fact, the law and order situation is perhaps worse than what it was under previous governments, with terrorists turning their sights on settled areas, violence returning to parts of Swat, and attacks on political workers and officials continuing unabated.

Despite this, it appears the PTI believes that peace can only be restored through the process of dialogue, by which the ‘non-threatening’ militant groups can be separated and isolated from those hell-bent on destroying the Pakistani state. Once separated, the remaining militant groups can be engaged through military force, if need be.

However, this policy in and of itself appears flawed. For example, although separating certain non-threatening militant groups from the rest may be strategically wise, once the other groups are dealt with, what shall be the fate of those pardoned outfits who also seek enforcement of the Sharia in one form or the other?

The said process of negotiating and separating certain groups from others appears more of an act of appeasement than an actual counterterrorism strategy.

Ironically, the PTI strategy appears to be eerily in consonance with the much criticised perceived policy of the PML-N to isolate groups that it deems are not presently posing a threat to Punjab from those that it feels cannot be ‘controlled’.

Although the PTI has censured the PML-N for such actions in Punjab, it seems to want to emulate the same policy at a national level in relation to the Taliban.

Even if we were to take the PTI stance at face value, it doesn’t cater for a situation in which no single group is willing to engage in any dialogue with the government. Despite its recent talks ‘offer’ after the Bannu incident, the TTP has made it clear that they do not wish to engage in any unconditional talks with the Pakistan government. In fact, the very selection of Mullah Fazlullah as its head should have been seen as an alarming indicator of this.

When confronted with such a situation where there appears to be only one party sitting at the negotiating table, the PTI appears dumbfounded. With no solution in sight, the party, rather than offering a way forward, resorts to blasting the US for sabotaging the peace process by killing Hakeemullah Mehsud. Interestingly enough, there is little or scarce evidence that Hakeemullah Mehsud was in fact serious about any negotiations with the Pakistan government.

Although certain initial statements of his did indicate a willingness to engage in dialogue, what the PTI seems to forget is that such dialogue had been subjected to various alarming preconditions, such as the withdrawal of forces from Fata, the cessation of hostilities vis-à-vis the Taliban, the ending of drone attacks, and the release of all Taliban prisoners.

In fact, the logical derivative of the argument of the PTI would be that in a situation where it is next to impossible to identify and separate those militant groups amenable to peace, the practical alternative would be to take on those identifiable groups that are clearly and openly fighting against the state.

However, the PTI does not seem to have the stomach to actually declare war on elements that have literally spurned those who offered peace and attacked them in return. In fact, they can barely even name them, perhaps in part due to the fear of reprisals by the Taliban against the PTI’s workers.

All in all, the PTI seems unable to chart a course of action in the face of a foreseeable dead-end on the road to peace. It is this inability in relation to the issue of terrorism that appears to render the PTI a rudderless ship unable to show even a glimmer of hope to a nation desperately seeking a leader of credibility.

Although many in the PTI would severely disagree with this assessment, it is undeniable that a party which cannot even name its enemy is an unlikely candidate to deliver peace to a nation that is unable at the moment to differentiate between friend and foe.

The writer is a freelance contributor.

basil.nabi@gmail.com

PTI’s indecisiveness - DAWN.COM

 

[Leviza]

So PTI and NAWAZ gov. still want to talk with TTP ? Khan is not changing its dialog that they kill innocent Pakistanis for their own agenda , nothing related to Pak involvement in WOT ...

F--K WOT, we need operation in FATA against these TTP leaders ... Khan need to develop habit to listen to others as well ... but he stays in denial mode ...

Shame on PMLN gov for not openly going against TTP after these brutal attacks ...

 

[Jazzbot]

What's up guys, you don't have to bring peace talks in every PTI related thread..?