Up to 7bn rupees being spent on maintenance, fueling of govt vehicles annually in Gilgit-Baltistan
GILGIT/ISLAMABAD: PPP’s leader Amjad Hussain Advocate has revealed during a speech in the Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly session that up to 7billion rupees are being spent annually on maintenance and fueling of around 4000 Sarkari vehicles in the region.
He made the revelation during the assembly session, while highlighting the privileges enjoyed by bureaucrats of all kinds in the region.
The PPP leader, who was the former opposition leader in the assembly, further added that out of the 4,160 Sarkari vehicles, only 2690 are registered; the rest of them are Non-Custom Paid (NCP) vehicles, usually smuggled into the region.
He said that the bureaucracy is blatantly violating the Staff Car Rules, without any accountability.
Speaker Nazir Ahmad referred the issue to a standing committee for further deliberation and correction actions.
It is pertinent to note that Gilgit-Baltistan depends completely on federal grants received from Islamabad, of which over 70billion are spent on non-developmental expenses and only around 15bn for developmental work.
Another issue highlighted was that all the official vehicles have above 1300 CC (Cubic Capacity) engines, which are neither fuel efficient nor environment friendly.
In Pakistan’s current economic situation, the rise in non-developmental, luxury, expenditure has gained more prominence as the masses struggle to a put meals on the table due to crippling inflation rate and massive hikes in the cost of petroleum products.
