Health sector to be given priority in budget: CM Usman Buzdar

LAHORE:Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar on Thursday chaired a meeting about the provincial budget and annual development programme (ADP) for the financial year 2020-21.

Planning and Development Board Chairman and Secretary Finance briefed the participants about the upcoming budget and ADP details. Addressing the participants, the chief minister said that budget priorities were needed to be focused in the backdrop of the prevailing situation, as the country was facing an unusual situation due to coronavirus pandemic.

While announcing that the social sector, including healthcare, would be given priority, Buzdar directed to further decrease unnecessary expenditures in the next financial year and stressed that the provincial departments would have to follow strict financial discipline. Austerity should be encouraged by controlling expenditures at every level, he said.

The departments should, themselves, decrease their unnecessary expenditures and solid steps be taken for a further decrease in expenditures in the next financial year, he added. The chief minister mentioned that decrease in subsidies, being given in different sectors, should be reviewed and attention be given to public-private partnership in next year's ADP.

Similarly, a comprehensive programme be devised for giving relief to the common man as the government was committed to protecting the indigent strata despite difficult circumstances. Finance Minister Hashim Jawan Bakht, Adviser Dr Salman Shah, Chief Secretary and others attended the meeting.

Rs7.87b distributed: Usman Buzdar has said that the PTI government had launched the largest financial aid programme for the people. He said that an amount of Rs7.87 billion had been distributed among more than 656,000 deserving families under CM Punjab Insaf Imdad Package and Ehsaas Programme.

A most transparent aid distribution system has been devised to help the needy, he added. Such programmes were launched in the past for personal projection and rights of the needy were usurped by an undue distribution of resources, the CM added.

tributes: Usman Buzdar attended a ceremony at his office to pay homage to late PTI MPA Shaheen Raza, here Thursday. The participants expressed deep grief over the death of Shaheen Raza due to coronavirus and offered Fateha for the departed soul.

The chief minister paid tributes to her socio-political services and announced naming an institute in Gujranwala after her. Shaheen Raza proactively represented the party at every occasion and her services will be remembered for long, he said. "We all are like a family and our joys and sorrows are also common", he said. Shaheen Raza always remained on the front during visits to Gujranwala, Usman Buzdar added.