Loan liabilities of Punjab government exceed Rs. 600 billion: PAT Punjab

The statement, issued from the central media office of Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) here today, has said that the Punjab government, which is already indebted to the tune of Rs. 500 billion, has got a new loan of $50 million during the first month of 2015 with the result that its loan liabilities have now exceeded Rs. 600 billion. The Punjab government got record foreign loans during 18 months of its tenure.

The statement said that upon assuming office, the present rulers had raised the slogan of not burdening the succeeding generations with more loans but contrary to their commitment, they have been on a loan-taking spree from every quarter thereby making every citizen heavily indebted.

PAT Punjab President Bashrat Jaspal and Secretary General Fayyaz Warriach said in the statement that the present dispensation in Punjab that has been in power for last seven years added to loan liabilities of the province by Rs. 427 billion from 2008 to 2013. They said that the government took a loan of $ 500 million, $35 million and $50 million respectively in 18 months. They said that bad governance and flawed decision-making of the Chief Minister is a fact known to all and sundry. They said that due to his wrong decisions, the food department is facing an overdraft of Rs. 100 billion and is having to pay Rs. 10 billion per annum as interest.

The report of PAT media cell disclosed that Punjab received additional resources of Rs. 700 billion from the federal government under the 7th National Finance Commission Award. Despite this injection of money, dependence of the provincial government on domestic and foreign loans has been registering an upward trend. In contrast to this, the standard of living of the inhabitants of the provinces has been going down markedly. It said that there has been no increase in economic growth rate during last seven years. The quality of basic services such as clean drinking water and health has deteriorated and law and order problems have acquired ominous form. Punjab province fails to offer anything except deficit-running metro bus service.

The report of PAT media cell said that there is a friendly opposition at the federal level, whereas there is no opposition in Punjab and consequently, there is no one in the Punjab Assembly that could identify the failures of the government. It said that capitalizing on the situation, the Punjab Chief Minister has been making decision arbitrarily the way he is pleased. He said that the people and provincial kitty are bearing the brunt of this reckless and highly self-centralized decision making in terms of excessive loans and increasing cost of living.