ISLAMABAD – Like his predecessor, the incumbent prime minister is spending billions of rupees in his electoral constituency at the cost of development in other areas of the country.

Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf is lavishly obliging his political darlings to ensure victory in the upcoming polls, in sheer violation of election commission’s code of conduct. During his stint, ex-premier Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani had also spent billions of rupees of developmental projects in his Multan constituency.
Raja has increased its discretionary spending to Rs37 billion from allocated Rs22 billion. He has spent Rs15 billion more than the amount actually meant for 106 development projects related to dams, health, education, floods and uplift of neglected areas such as Balochistan, AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan. The government has diverted resources towards the Gujjar Khan package meant for the home constituency of the premier. The government has recently approved two projects of Rs9.4 billion worth for Raja's Gujar Khan constituency.
The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) last week approved two road projects – Mandra-Chakwal Road and Sohawa-Chakwal Road. The projects include Rs2.676 billion for dualisation of the 64km Mandra-Chakwal Road and for it more than Rs2.1 billion (78 per cent of the allocated amount) has already been released. Another Rs3.3 billion project is for dualisation of the 70km Sohawa-Chakwal Road.
The prime minister has also announced an IT University and computer labs for all schools and colleges of the whole tehsil. He announced several development projects for Gujar Khan and its surrounding areas which include 157 projects for providing electricity and 255 schemes for distributing natural gas.
Earlier, former Prime Minister Gilani had also supported special development packages for Multan.
He launched seven mega projects at Chungi No 9, which include six flyovers and extension of Bosan Road. Moreover extension project of the road in Chowk Nang Shah and a basic health centre at Hamid Pur Kanora was started.
The development package for Multan included Rs5.924 billion schemes of water supply and sewerage under the master plan. Under the PM’s special development initiative, all the roads were widened in the area. Gilani had also announced six low-cost housing schemes in Multan to benefit the poor. These housing schemes would be built in four towns of the city – Bosan, Shah Rukn-e-Alam, Mumtazabad and Shershah towns, and in Jalalpur Pirwala and Shujabad. The former prime minister had also approved construction of a modern, fully-equipped cancer hospital in Multan.