QUETTA, June 23: Protests by opposition members caused a pandemonium during the budget speech of Balochistan Finance Minister Syed Ehsan Shah in the provincial assembly on Wednesday as they tore up the budget documents and threw those towards the minister.

When Speaker Jamal Shah Kakar asked the finance minister to present the budget after recitation from Holy Quran, Jan Mohammad Buledi of the National Party tried to speak on a point of order.

The speaker did not allow him to speak, after which the opposition protested strongly and tried to disrupt the budget speech but the minister continued. All opposition members, except women, went towards the minister's rostrum with placards in their hands, stood in front of television cameras and chanted slogans loudly against the budget and the chief minister.

They kept thumping desks and raising slogans throughout the speech. Members from the treasury benches also started thumping desks to express solidarity with the minister and counter the protest of the opposition.

The budget speech could not be heard in the visitors' gallery due to the noise. The speaker directed the sergeant at arms to take the opposition members to their seats but he and four security guards failed to do so because of resistance by the MPAs.

Speaking later at a press conference, opposition leader Kachkol Ali Baloch of the NP, Abdur Rahim Ziaratwal of the Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, Haji Juma khan Bugti of the Jamhoori Watan Party, Mohammad Akbar Mengal of the Balochistan National Party (Mengal) and Mohammad Shafique of the People's Party Parliamentarians announced that protest inside the house would continue during the budget session.

They said the provincial government had failed to serve the people and protect the rights of Balochistan. They alleged that ministers and officials were involved in corruption.

They said the government had failed to utilize allocated funds during the current year, taken an overdraft of Rs4 billion from the State Bank and presented a deficit budget for 2004-05.

They said the government was trying to mislead people by saying that it had allocated Rs7 billion for 18 ongoing schemes, while actually those were new projects. They said the government had allocated only Rs100 million for each of the 19 opposition members in the Rs12 billion Public Sector Development Programme, which was unacceptable.

They said the government had not honoured assurances given in the house regarding the PSDP and tenders for schemes promised with the opposition had not been issued while only a week of the current financial year was left. They said the opposition had tolerated injustice for two years but now it have decided to create hurdles for the government.