KARACHI: PPP calls for people’s say in budget preparation
By Our Reporter
KARACHI, April 2: The Pakistan People’s Party has said that a people-friendly budget cannot be made without ascertaining and accommodating views of people. In a joint statement issued here on Sunday, PPP leaders Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, Syed Murad Ali Shah and Shazia Marri, said that in keeping with this belief, the PPP had organized a pre-budget consultative public forum at the Sindh Assembly.
Regrettably, government official including the chief secretary, had chosen not to interact with the people and preferred making budget allocations behind closed doors yet again, said Mr Khuhro, adding that all government functionaries, including cabinet ministers, had been invited to attend the forum.
The forum, which was attended by civil society representatives, lawyers, doctors, educationists, agriculturists, women rights activists and parliamentarians, discussed budget allocations for health, education, social services, agriculture and other sectors.
The final recommendations would be sent to the government on April 8, said Shazia Marri, adding that last year too, recommendations gleaned from a similar forum had been sent to the government which appeared not interested in pursuing them and thus showed disregard to people’s opinion. Nonetheless, the PPP would continue its struggle and endeavour to represent people in their best interests, she vowed.
Referring to the recent budget meeting held by the chief minister, and his comment that the opposition should discuss the budget at the CM’s House, Ms Marri said that PPP had held the public forum at the Sindh Assembly and invited the chief minister to attend the same, but it was unfortunate that this issue was also being made a matter of ego by Dr Arbab Rahim.
Speaking further about the government-sponsored meeting, she said that education enrolment was discussed but there was no feasible plan to monitor the increase in enrolment. Similarly, out of the amount of over Rs700 million allocated for health in 2005-06, mere 15 per cent had been utilized by December 2005. She attributed this to the inadequate monitoring and the government’s closed door policy, stressing that community involvement in the budget-making was imperative for effective budgeting.
Some recommendations made at the opposition’s forum included increasing allocations to the health sector, particularly for controlling STD and AIDs. In this regard, the government could take up opposition’s private bill, The Sindh AIDS Prevention and Control Bill, said Ms Marri.
She also demanded that women development expenditure be increased and concerns like domestic violence be addressed.
About the legislation proposed by the opposition, Syed Murad Ali Shah said that the issues like child labour and beggary had been addressed in ‘The Sindh Homeless Children (Care and Protection) Bill’ whereas ‘The Sindh Destitute and Needy Senior Citizens (Care, Protection and Welfare) Bill’ dealt with ensuring the wellbeing of senior citizens. Further, he said, ‘The Sindh Disaster Management Bill’ had been introduced to equip ourselves to counter calamities.
Ms Marri stressed that the inhabitants of the recently demolished villages must be rehabilitated by the government and allocations be made for their benefit. In this regard, Murad Shah stated that allocations must also be made for the rehabilitation of those affected by the Hyderabad riots in 1991, adding that this had been promised by the then chief minister and ordered by the Sindh High Court in February 2006.
The PPP leaders also called for a new NFC Award, indicating that there had been no NFC since 1997 which was to the extreme detriment of the country and its people.
