By Shahbaz Rana
Many schools and hospitals in the war-torn tribal areas of Pakistan will either remain non-operational or will function below their capacity as the federal government has turned down a request to create about 4,500 new posts in these institutions due to financial constraints.
Against the request of creating 4,486 posts in health and education departments of Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA), the federal finance ministry has agreed to finance only 1,440 posts, which fulfills only 32 per cent of the needs.
The Fata Secretariat had initially sent a schedule of expenditure for 2,153 health sector posts and 2,329 education sector posts to the finance ministry, said FATA Finance Secretary Kamran Shah during a meeting of Senate Standing Committee on Finance, held on Wednesday. Against the request of 2,153 health sector posts, the finance ministry sanctioned only 616 posts, which covered only 28.5 per cent of the requirements. Similarly, in the education sector, the finance ministry sanctioned 824 posts, which covered only 35 per cent of the requirements.
“Due to financial constraints, we cannot create all the posts in one go,” said Federal Finance Secretary Shahid Mehmood. He said that this decision was taken with the consultation of all the stakeholders. Mehmood said that the annual cost of filling all the vacant posts in Fata was over Rs3 billion, which the federal government cannot finance at this stage.
This has once again raised questions over the priorities of the federal government that quietly gave away Rs42.5 billion in only a year to fund politically-oriented schemes but did not have mere Rs3 billion to create 4,486 required posts in the health and education departments.
0.5m girls out of school in FATA
In the previous fiscal year, the government had allocated Rs20 billion for parliamentarians’ schemes but the actual spending remained at Rs42.5 billion. The finance ministry and the planning ministry gave additional Rs22.5 billion despite the fact that there were no additional funds available.
The Fata Finance Secretary said that in the first phase, the positions would be filled only in high schools and degree colleges.
“The federal government has resources for the construction of Metro Bus project in Islamabad but not for creating posts in the schools of Fata, lamented,” Senator Hidayat Ullah.
The planning ministry had given over Rs15 billion funds for Islamabad’s under construction Metro Bus project that will link the capital city to the new airport despite the fact that there were no allocations for this in the development budget.
Fata Secretariat had sent a request for the creation of 5,540 posts in about a dozen departments, said Shah. He said that the finance ministry has agreed to create 2,293 posts that will require Rs980.5 million annual funding. Out of a total of 2,293 posts as many as 1,440 were sanctioned in the education and health departments, said Shah.
These schools had been built in various tribal agencies of Fata with the help of federal government and foreign donors. China has also recently announced to build over 50 schools for girls in Fata.
Over 1,195 girls’ schools were affected by war on terror in these tribal agencies, out of which 555 were completely destroyed whereas 491 were partially affected.
At present, 5,545 primary schools are operational in Fata and there is a surplus of primary schools, said Kamran Shah. He said that the number of high schools is only 338 therefore; it was decided to expand them in the first phase.
“It is essential to fill all the posts of health and education departments in Fata to address their multiple deprivations,” said Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq of the PML-N.
Kamran Shah said that the federal government has provided Rs21.8 billion for current expenditures and another Rs21.3 billion for development activities in the Fata regions.
The federal government is seeking provinces’ contributions to meet the financial needs of Fata and other areas of the country. It has sought seven per cent share of the federal divisible pool to meet the requirements of Fata, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. But the provincial governments are not willing to accept this demand.
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