MUHAMMAD HASHIM KHAN KAKAR, ACJ. The instant constitutional petition filed under Article 199 of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973 ("the Constitution"), carries the following prayer clause: "It is, therefore, respectfully prayed that the tender published in daily newspaper dated 06-12-2023 having PRQ No.1118/05-12-2023 and awarding the same to the respondents Nos.6 and 7 may kindly be declared as illegal and the same may be cancelled and directions to the respondent No.3 may kindly be given to re-advertise the same tender notice by giving proper opportunity to the petitioner and others to apply in the bid, with any other relief deems fit in the interest of justice and fair play."
2. Briefly stated facts of the case are that on 09.03.2023 a publication was made in daily newspapers by Executive Engineer/Maintenance Division 1, Quetta, inviting the interested bidders for "Construction of Governor's Annex, Chief' Minister's Annex, Residential Colony of Employees and Balochistan House at Islamabad" against the cost of 1,825,389,000/- and before opening of said tender, it was cancelled. Again another tender notice of the same work was published on 05.04.2023 followed by corrigendum, which was also cancelled again without giving any reason.
Consequently another tender notice was published on 04.05.2023 for the same work followed by another corrigendum and again cancelled. Interestingly, again publication in respect of the same work was made in the daily newspapers on 07.10.2023 and cost of the work was increased to Rs.3,337,310,000/- with bid security of 3%, however the same was again cancelled. Astonishingly, once again in respect of the same work tenders were invited on 06.12.2023 having PRQ No. 1118/05.12.2023 with reduced cost to Rs.2, 899,140,000/- and finally work was awarded to respondents Nos.6 and 7 and the said publication was also followed by a corrigendum.
3. Keeping in view such state of affairs, directions were issued to the Advocate General to procure the attendance of Chief Minister, who did appear and categorically stated that the work in question has been cancelled being luxurious and unaffordable. When he was confronted with the remaining contentions raised by Mr. Kamran Murtaza, he frankly conceded and fairly suggested to dispose of the instant petition in the following terms: i) Presently, around 80096 posts are vacant in the province of Balochistan and if it is assumed that about half of the above vacant posts are meant for the promotions; even then 40,000 posts are there to be filled through initial recruitment in the province. The capacity of departments to fill these posts is not discreet. Departments are unable to fill posts in the prescribed timeframe (six months as per APT Rules); and on the other hand, the government continues to create posts each year that continue adding up the number of unfilled posts. Since, a large number of vacancies are already lying vacant; as such there is no need to create more posts in the coming budget. The provincial government pays about 21 billion a month on account of salaries and pensions (each month) while share from Fed divisible pool is shrinking and own revenue is abysmally low. In such a sorry state of affairs, the province cannot sustain more employment. ii) Provision of job/employment is one of the fundamental duties of the government, and therefore, effort must be made for creating jobs for the youth in the province. However, above figures, and an impartial analysis manifest otherwise. Therefore, it is high time that the provincial government should, come up with a holistic and well thought out plan to channel appointments in a way that does not adversely affect the struggling economy of the province on one hand, and address needs of rising youth bulge on the other. iii) Redundant posts from various departments, like Kulis Darogha Misalchi, Camel man and like will be shifted to other departments by changing nomenclatures and DDO Codes. This will help non- creation of new posts; and the existing posts would be shifted to departments where needed. iv) No more posts will be created in departments except health, education and police, where posts are already lying vacant to be filled through initial recruitment. Once all vacant posts have been filled; then only those number of posts be created that are being retired from that department. v) There shall be a complete ban on creation of posts through special SNEs by the Chief Minister because it has two major drawbacks, namely, unplanned creation of posts and unduly affecting already planned budget allocation for a specific year, however, for the operational purposes; the government shall not create new position beyond a maximum of 3,000 per annum. vi) Civil Secretariat is over staffed; and there is hardly any need for further appointments in the civil Secretariat except the ones meant to be filled through Balochistan Public Service Commission.
Therefore, the appointments in civil Secretariat are banned till further order. vii) Instead of generating/creating appointments in the public sector, government will focus on creating opportunities for the young graduates in private sector, freelancing and entrepreneurships. Facilitating startups through IT industry and incubation centers alongside more revenues for technical and vocational centers are some of the areas that can be focused. viii) Personal up-gradation of posts (in person and by name) should be done away with for all days to come unless otherwise provided under. It is common in Balochistan to find employees, pointed in BPS 11 or 14 and reaching to BPS 18, 19 and even to BPS 20 by mere upgrading the posts in person. ix) No fresh appointments of levies will be made in the districts that have already been declared as 'A' districts, whereas per law police have the responsibility to maintain law and order. It is a matter of common knowledge that levies in 'A' areas have only been reduced to position of personal protocol services, or they are used to run household affairs of a few influential ones. The government shall carry out a detailed exercise and workout such redundant posts in a period of six months. These posts can be shifted/renamed, and utilized elsewhere, may be to meet demand of police. The government, instead of creating new posts, shall see, which redundant posts can be shifted from one DDO code to another, by changing nomenclature of such posts. There is hardly any rationale for keeping levies in 'A' area. It adds an additional burden to the struggling economy of the province on one hand, and creates dichotomy in discharge of official function on the other hand. The government shall make arrangements and develop a plan for shifting of the entire levies of 'A' districts to police force in districts Quetta, Gwadar and Lasbella. No more recruitment of levies be made in 'A' areas of the Province and the government should develop a mechanism, duly backed by law, of shifting the levies (from all A districts) to police in a period of six months. x) It may be noted that the salary expenditure is currently more than 50% of the non-development expenditure and combined with pension expenses, it crosses 68% of the non-development expenditure. Annual increase in salary is allowed on basic only, while the annual increase on pension has been allowed for past many years on total cumulative amount of pension, resulting in such a huge annual increase in pension. The resulting impact is so huge that the expected pension expenditure is going to cross Rs.71 billion for the year 2023-24 as compared to the projected amount of Rs.58 billion, introduction of contributory pension schemes for the upcoming employees being hired, appointment of employees on contract basis by allowing an additional margin in the monthly salary as compensation for pension, reducing the beneficiaries under the family tree and reducing it to the spouse or invalid children or children below a certain age, and paying pension for a maximum period of 10 years after demise of the government servant etc. Moreover, based on the actuarial study of 2018 the pension liabilities of the province had crossed Rs.1,400 billion which must have doubled now due to revision of pay scale and appointment of new employees. xi) The Government has to provide for maximum possible amount for development expenditure, which in the scarce available resources, is alternatively possible through taking austerity measures and keeping the non-development budget to the minimum. The lower the allocation for non- development expenditure the higher the amount can be spared for development expenditure and the faster will be the economic and social growth in the province. xii) The foremost and essential part for running government operations is arrange for financial resources in which Tax Income has the largest part. However, all the major taxes are part of the Federal Legislative, list majority of which is distributed among the provinces under the NFC award as defined in Article 160 of the Constitution. Currently, 82% of the revenue is received from the Federal Government consisting of the share out of Federal Taxes, Royalty on Natural Gas, and Grants from Federal Government for Development Projects under the Federal PSDP. xiii) It may be noted that Provincial own source tax and non-tax revenues make 9% of the total receipt for a year, which is also very much dependent on the unprecedented high growth in Income from Sales Tax on Services, which will also reach a saturation point in near future, while the performance of other taxes, like Excise Taxes and Taxes under Board of Revenue have not been performing according to the expected potential in these areas. The Provinces of Punjab and Sindh have been trying to reduce their dependence on Federal Revenues, white giving special attention to strengthening own source revenues, in which a remarkable growth has been achieved; particularly in Sales Tax on Services and generally in all other taxes, like Stamp Duties, Property Taxes etc. Adoption of modern technological tools like issuance of e-stamp, automation of urban immoveable property taxes or introduction of computerized motor vehicle registration mechanism.
4. In order to streamline the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) of Balochistan to make it in accordance with the guidelines of the Planning Commission of Pakistan as well as the guidelines given by the Hon'ble Supreme Court of Pakistan in the case of "Raja Pervaiz Ashraf" (2014 SCMR 835) as well as by this Court in Constitutional Petition No. 482 of 2016, the following guidelines will be followed: "1. The Government is at liberty to include any scheme in the next PSDP, strictly in accordance with the guidelines of the Planning Commission of Pakistan, but making sure that the same is/are purely of collective in nature and of public importance, having economic or social or both benefit(s) for the people at large, by formulating a well-defined criteria.
2. The Government should evolve institutionalized policies in every sector, preferably in Education, Health, Water, Forest, Agriculture, Live Stock, Minerals, Fisheries, Tourism and Housing, to achieve sustainable development goals, so as to provide maximum social and economic benefit to the public at large.
3. The Government should formulate sectoral plans in respect of each sector, preferably, the above referred sectors, for the next PSDP of the year 2019-20 and onwards, to ensure sectoral balance and regional parity at the time of allocating funds and schemes for all sectors and districts of the Province.
4. Preference should be given to the ongoing schemes while allocating funds as provided by the Planning Commission Manual and as per the directions of Hon'ble Supreme Court of Pakistan so as to ensure timely completion of the schemes and to avoid cost overrun and throw forward.
5. The Government should also consider inclusion of schemes of income generation in the next PSDP to enhance revenue and the overall economic growth of the Province.
6. Every scheme intended to be included in the PSDP, must be through a concept paper and a PC- I, duly processed through the concerned department, containing relevant information and applying cost-benefit analysis tools, while identifying, conceiving and formulating the new proposal/PC-I, coupled with Geographical Information System (GIS). Administrative Heads of the departments, authorities and agencies under the Provincial Government should personally ensure and certify the needful to be done, so as to make the relevant officials accountable, in case of providing wrong or fake data.
7. Size of the PSDP must be in accordance with the guidelines of the Planning Commission of Pakistan, to make it reasonable and to avoid huge deficit, as witnessed in the financial year 2018- 19.
8. The Government should evolve a mechanism of Performance Audit for both development and non-development activities and interventions to ensure the value for money spent by the Government and to maintain monitory discipline, so as to ensure their timely completion as per the specification.
9. The P and D Department should come up with monitoring and evolution framework with proper tools and nodes established in all administrative departments and to ensure its implementation at the earliest.
10. The Government should expedite the process of automation of the PSDP and to complete it at the earliest."
In the light of above, petition is dispose of in the above terms. Office is directed to send copy of this judgment to the Chief Secretary, Additional Chief "Secretary, Development as well as to all Administrative Secretaries, Government of Balochistan for necessary information and compliance.