KARACHI, April 27: Draft budget of Rs31.97 billion for financial year 2004-05 was presented in the City Council Karachi on Tuesday amid uproar and pandemonium created by the members recently elected in byelections, as was anticipated.

The budget session, which commenced with City Naib Nazim Tariq Hasan in the chair, was completely marred by protests on remarks made by the newly-elected members. A newly-elected member, Zaki Hasan from Haq Parast Group, in his first speech remarked: "Real heirs of Karachi have been elected by the people in last byelection of local bodies."

His remarks invited a stormy reaction from members belonging to other panels who rose from their seats and strongly protested against the remarks made by the member. An overwhelming majority of the members objected to word "real heirs" and asked the member to withdraw his remarks.

Proceedings of the house remained suspended for about 20 minutes with the slogans raised by different panels in favour of their party and leaders. Members of the city council, belonging to the Al-Khidmat Group and Awam Dost Panel, levelled serious allegations against each others over several issues.

One member from the Awam Dost Panel, which was also critical of the wording of the member, said that the people of Karachi are well aware of the fact as to who ruined the city and who served the masses in real spirit.

"All members of the city council are heirs of Karachi and no party can claim to be the sole representative of the people as all of them have a public mandate," he observed.

Panel of Haq Parast Group, comprising six members of council, defended their party by claiming that their party was the real representative of the city, which has been proved time and again by it.

Tariq Hasan, convener of session, intervened and ruled that no one can claim to be the sole heir to the city as all members of the city council are heir to the city and adjourned the session for next Monday.

Earlier, when the budget was presented, some members said that the budget had been prepared without taking into confidence the committee of sessions and termed it a conspiracy of bureaucracy to keep the elected representatives in the dark.

Siddique Rathore severely criticized the city government for violating the SLGO by not presenting the budget on April 1, as mentioned in the SLGO. Saeed Ghani, Jafarul Hasan, Muslim Pervez, Nazir Sajid and some others participated in the debate. -PPI