QUETTA, June 22: The group of ‘angry parliamentarians’ of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League on Wednesday boycotted provincial assembly’s budget session to register their protest against what they said non-redressal of their complaints on different issues, including the budget.
The group comprising 13 MPAs, including five provincial ministers, did not attend the budget session in which Finance Minister Syed Ehsan Shah presented the budget for 2005-06.
Former chief minister Mir Jan Mohammad Khan Jamali told Dawn that the provincial government had not taken any step to remove their reservations despite assurance given to them in a meeting with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and PML president Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain in Islamabad last week. He said despite their protests, highly politicized bureaucracy was involved in budget making.
“These bureaucrats are the main cause of misunderstanding between the government and us,” Mir Jamali said and added that the group was not ready to accept these officials any more.
He said that government was also not accommodating opposition in the ADP and also ignoring members of the PML. He said they were left with no option but to boycott the whole budget session.
Those who boycotted the budget session include Mir Abdul Rehman Jamali, Syed Sher Jan Baloch, Mir Bakhtiar Khan Domki, Sardar Masood Khan Luni, Mir Abdul Ghafoor Lahri, Colonel (rtd) Mohammad Younus Changezi, Mir Jan Mohammad Khan Jamali, Mir Tariq Ali Magsi, Shiekh Jaffar Khan Mandokhel, Mir Shah Zaman Rind, Engineer Basant Lal Gulshan, Mrs Robina Irfan and Dr Ruqaiya Saeed Hashmi.