Islamabad: Asad Umar – Federal Minister for Planning and Development, on Thursday, hinted that government might resort to using Dam Fund to tackle COVID-19 outbreak due to rapidly depleting financial resources.
In a statement issued on social media, the former finance minister stated that Rs 99 billion have been spent on the project so far, mainly for land acquisition. He continued on to address the fact that the Dam Fund, amounting some Rs12 billion, is supervised by the Supreme Court and the government might approach the Supreme Court to request the utilization of the money in Dam fund for efforts against the coronavirus.
Earlier, constitutional petition was filed in the Supreme Court (SC) demanded that the government should use the funds collected for the construction of dams to fight the coronavirus outbreak in the country.
Addressing the nation, Prime Minister Imran Khan had highlighted dire economic situation faced by the government due to coronavirus outbreak.
“Prime Minister’s COVID-19 Pandemic Relief Fund-2020 has been set up to help us fight this pandemic. I want everyone to donate towards this fund which will be used to take care of all those who have been made destitute by the lockdown,” he tweeted.
Federal government has already announced a financial support package amounting to Rs 1.25 trillion which include relief packages for all sectors of the society including the poor, businessmen and the industries.
