Planning & Development Department, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa arranged workshop for the Members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on “ROLE OF PARLIAMENTARIANS IN DEVELOPMENT PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION” at Provincial Assembly Building, Peshawar on 5th October, 2021 at 11:00am. The session was chaired by Mr. Munawar Khan, Member of the Provincial Assembly.
The workshop started with the recitation of versus from The Holy Quran. Mr. Muhammad Ali Asghar, Chief Economist, Planning & Development Department, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa welcomed the participants and informed that the members of the Provincial Assembly are playing important role in the development of the constituencies in particular and the province in general. 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 facilitate 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 Planning Commission is including the approved projects in the public sector development program of the Federal Government. The ADP Policy 2019-23 of Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa states that only approved schemes could be included in the annual development program. The Planning & Development Department as per decision of the Public Investment Management (PIM) Action Plan approved by the Core Committee chaired by the ACS (Dev) has notified 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 Chief Economist informed the participants that Planning & Development Department is in the process of preparation of Planning Manual for the Government of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The final draft of Planning Manual has been submitted by the Consultant for approval. The Manual contains all the requisite information to facilitate project preparation and implementation.
The Chief Economist stated that this workshop will facilitate the members of the provincial assembly in understanding the development process along with preparation and approval of development projects and their 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.
At the end, he conveyed his sincere thanks to Mr. Munawar Khan for chairing the workshop and also thanked Mr. Nasrullah Khan Khattak for convening the workshop. He also appreciated the participation of the members in this important workshop.
