ISLAMABAD – Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Asad Umar onFriday said that by end of current fiscal year, the PakistanTehrik-i-Insaaf (PTI) government was targeting to spend over Rs30 billionon higher education development projects, which would be 100 percent morethan what the PML-N government spent during its last year.
“In the last year of PML-N government, Rs16.4 billion were spent on highereducation development projects. In first year of PTI government it spentRs18.8 billion, 14.6% higher,” he said in a tweet after chairing a meetingto review status of funding of higher education projects here.The meeting was co-chaired by Asad Umar and Minister for Education andProfessional Training Shafqat Mehmood.
Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Muhammad Jahanzeb Khan, Chairman HECTariq Banuri and other senior officials also attended the meeting.
The meeting was informed that the process of release of development fundshas been revamped and the Principal Accounting Officers (PAO) have beengiven greater powers.
It was said that an amount of Rs11.4 billion has so far been authorized bythe Planning Division for release to HEC, out of the total allocation ofRs29 billion for the current year.The Minister for Planning directed the relevant officials to make sure thatthe funds allocated for HEC are released in a timely manner so that theeducational institutions could utilize them for their projects.
He also asked chairman HEC to make sure that the released funds were spentprudently and effectively.
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The minister assured that the government would provide more funds to theHEC during the current years, than the expenditure the commission hasincurred during the recent years. He asked the chairman HEC to gear up theefforts to increase the fund utilization capabilities to achieve higherexpenditure levels.
The meeting also discussed proposals of Ministry of Education relating toimproving student enrollment and improving the quality of education. It wasdecided that the Ministry of Education would formulate formal projectproposals to implement these projects.
The Planning Commission would facilitate the design and approval process ofthe proposals.
The ministers also decided to carry out a review of the Knowledge Economyprojects along with the ministries of Science & Technology and InformationTechnology & Telecom.
