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| June 23, 2005 | Thursday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 15, 1426 |
Opposition walks out of budget session
QUETTA, June 22: Opposition members in the Balochistan Assembly strongly protested and tore copies of the budget on Wednesday, alleging that the government had failed to get the province’s financial rights from the centre.
The opposition parties, except the People’s Party Parliamentarians, asked Chief Minister Jam Yousuf to resign.
Opposition leader Kachkol Baloch and Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awamy Party’s parliamentary leader Abdur Rahim Ziaratwal told newsmen after a walkout from the assembly that the chief minister had lost the trust of house as a majority of members of the Pakistan Muslim League did not attend the budget session. They said Jam Yousuf should follow the tradition set by Taj Jamali and Sardar Akhtar Mengal, who had resigned when differences occurred in their parliamentary groups.
However, PPP parliamentary leader Nawab Aslam Raisani said his party did not back the demand of the PMAP, the Balochistan National Party (Mengal), the Jamhoori Watan Party and the National Party for the chief minister’s resignation as it did not want to destabilize the coalition government.
The house witnessed an uproar when opposition members started thumping the desks and chanting slogans demanding that they should be allowed to express their points of view prior to the finance minister’s budget speech.
During the pandemonium, it was announced that the speaker, the finance minister and the opposition had agreed that four opposition members would speak briefly before the budget speech.
Speaker Jamal Shah Kakar allowed Mr Ziaratwal, Haji Juma Bugti of the JWP, Mir Jan Buledi of the NP and Sardar Azam Musakhel of the PMAP to take the floor but when Akhtar Hussain of the BNP-M wanted to speak the finance minister started his budget speech, which caused and uproar in the house.
The speaker said both the opposition members and the finance minister had not honoured the commitment. He said the opposition members were obstructing the proceedings after four of their colleagues had spoken, while the finance minister had started the budget speech without his permission.
Sardar Sanaullah Zehri of the NP said on a point of order that the finance minister had breached the agreement, as the opposition leader was yet to take the floor.
The speaker asked the opposition leader to speak.
After their leader’s speech, the opposition members again started thumping desks and throwing pages of the budget’s copies in the house, after which they walked out.
Mr Baloch and Mr Ziaratwal told newsmen that the provincial government had presented a deficit budget and there would be no amount for development if the centre did not provide funds.
They said the main success of any government was provision of jobs and allocation of funds for development but the budget lacked both. They said the provincial government had failed to resolve the problems faced by people.
They said the Jam government had violated the constitution by authorizing President Pervez Musharraf to announce the National Finance Commission award. They said the members of the commission could legally take a decision on the award.
They said lack of finalization of the NFC award had caused loss to Balochistan, which was a result of compromise on the rights of the province by ministers belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal.
Replying to a question, they said the members of the assembly should elect a new leader of the house after the chief minister’s resignation.
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