Stakeholders input sought in budget-making process

LAKKI MARWAT: Speakers at a dialogue have stressed the need for taking all stakeholders into confidence in the budget-making process to overcome deficiencies.

Citizen Network for Budget Accountability, a network of civil society organisations, had arranged the dialogue in Lakki city on Friday. The local government representatives, political and social activists, traders, lawyers, journalists and civil society members attended the gathering.

Inayatullah, a representative of the organisation, said that the Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives had been working for the last one decade to improve budgeting and promote transparency in the entire process from the district to federal level in Pakistan.

He shed light on a report released by CPDI on “Status of Budget Transparency in Pakistan and International Best Practices” and urged the government to launch a central digital platform to promote citizens’ participation in budgeting.

He said that the platform should be designed on a pattern to enable citizens to comprehend complex and difficult terminologies of budget making.