No one should have any objection to Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar’s sudden flurry of activity, one symptom of which is his sudden darts from his capital to the hinterland of the province has been selected by Prime Minister Imran Khan to lead. However, his recent jaunt to Gujranwala, Sheikhupura and Hafizabad districts has raised a conundrum. When he goes somewhere, he distributes largesse. Or rather he promises to do so. He has promised a total of Rs 25 billion in all three districts. He has promised universities to each, but has not stopped there: there have been promises of infrastructure development. This new activism may have been prompted by the rumours which spread like wildfire recently, that he was being replaced. He seems to be working hard to rebut the main charge made against him, that he was ineffective and was not doing as much as he was supposed to when he was selected as the PM’s ‘Waseem Akram-plus’. That might explain his promise to visit all the province’s districts. At that rate, what with 36 districts, Mr Buzdar could find he has let himself in for projects worth Rs 300 billion.
One problem is where the money is going to come from. Such spending depends on the provincial government having access to federal funding. The federal government not only does not have that kind of money, it also has to keep an eye on provincial deficits. It has to be particularly careful now that it has to obey IMF orders. Another problem is that when in opposition, the PTI expressed resentment, even anger, at how chief ministers announced projects with public money as if they were doing the spending. Now that its own CM is doing so, there is a deafening silence.
Mr Buzdar should be careful about announcing new projects. He should realise that previous CMs could announce large projects because they could rely on federal funding. He does not have that advantage, and so should just enjoy his jaunts to the mofussil while he can.
