Planning & Development Department, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa arranged a workshop for the members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on the “Role of Parliamentarians in ADP Preparation & Implementation” at Pearl Continental Hotel, Peshawar on 31st August, 2021 at 11:30am. The session was chaired by Mr. Abdul Karim, Special Assistant to Chief Minister on Industries & Commerce. Members of the Provincial Assembly participated in the workshop.
The workshop started with the recitation of versus from The Holy Quran. Mr. Amer Sultan Tareen, Secretary Planning & Development Department, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa welcomed the participants and informed that the members of the Provincial Assembly are playing an important role in the economic development of the province. The members identify the development schemes based on the needs of the communities to provide them respectable living including provision of better health facilities, education for all, provision of safe drinking water, road infrastructure, provision of electricity and providing incentives for social wellbeing of the target groups. It has been observed that these initiatives have a major impact on improving the livelihood of the masses and facilitated developing good relationships between the constituency and the elected representatives.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa like other provinces has financial constraints in meeting the development needs of the masses. In order to ensure that important projects of each constituency are included in the development budget, the planning hierarchy at the provincial and district level facilitate the parliamentarians in planning, designing, preparation of PC-I, its approval, release of funds and projects implementation including procurement of goods and services. It has been observed that in a number of cases the identification, preparation of proposal and its approval takes a late start and could not find a place in the Annual Development Program (ADP) as per ADP policy 2019-23.
The ADP Policy 2019-23 of the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa states that only approved schemes could be included in the annual development program. The Planning & Development Department as per the decision of the Public Investment Management (PIM) Action Plan approved by the core committee is planning to notify the preparation of Annual Development Program 2022-23 in September 2021 and it is planned that only the approved schemes will be included in the ADP 2022-23. He encouraged the members of the provincial assembly to identify development projects and get them prepared and approved by the competent forum by March 2022 for its inclusion in the ADP 2022-23.
The secretary informed the participants that Planning & Development Department is in the process of preparation of Planning Manual for the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The zero draft has been prepared and discussed by the technical committee notified by the Planning and Development Department. The draft has been updated on the basis of observations made by the technical committee and is expected to be finalized shortly. It is expected that the manual will provide all the requisite information to facilitate project preparation and implementation.
The Secretary stated that today’s workshop will facilitate the members of the provincial assembly in understanding the development process along with preparation and approval of development projects and it financing. Planning and Development Department is confident that this workshop will lead to improve the timings of project preparation along with quality of preparation of PC-I. This will ensure the inclusion of projects in the ADP 2022-23 identified by the parliamentarians and provision of funds.
At the end, he conveyed his sincere thanks to Mr. Abdul Karim for participating and chairing the workshop. He also appreciated the participation of the members in this important workshop.
