Lahore:
The Minister of Planning, Ahsan Iqbal, said on Saturday that the government has accelerated the completion of all hydroelectric projects, including the Diamer-Bhasha and Mohmand dams, to prevent India from obtaining a strategic advantage.
“We prioritize them so that the Pakistani water is sure,” said Iqbal speaking to a delegation of engineers led by the secretary general of the Institution of Pakistan Engineers (IEP) Engr Ameer Zameer.
He said that work on hydroelectric projects was being priority in response to the aggression of India water.
India plans to considerably increase the water it pulls in a large river which feeds the downstream Pakistani farms, as part of what it claims to be a reprisals for a deadly attack from last month against tourists in the pahalgam of Iiojk, reported Reuters from New Delhabad to Islamabad, in four familiar people with the problem, reported Reuters.
While discussing the plans of the Green initiative, the Minister of Planning said that engineers received training in China.
“The Prime Minister has sent more than a thousand agricultural engineers to China for training, which will end their training this year and will provoke a green agricultural revolution 2.0,” he said. “We aim to develop our own seeds and modernize our dairy and breeding sectors.”
The Minister of Planning observed that in the budget, the funding was allocated to an internship to the engineers. “Thousands of young engineers across the country will be able to receive training during the job so that they receive better job opportunities on the market.”
However, he said that Pakistan would only have a development budget of 1 rush billion to do all of this.
“Our ministers demanded RS3 Billions to complete our current projects. But, due to this deficit, we put a ceiling on low priority projects and will try to carry out our high priority projects as quickly as possible.
Iqbal also said that Pakistan would increase its defense budget for the next fiscal 2025-26 by keeping the recent climbing with India and New Delhi suspending a keywater sharing treatise on the river with Islamabad.
Earlier, the government planned to present the federal budget on June 2, but Friday, the adviser of the Minister of Finance Khurram Shahzad said that the budget would be presented on June 10.
The Minister of Planning said that the budget had not been delayed due to the IMF pressure.
