KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly on the last day of a general discussion on budget proposals witnessed commotion when the finance minister’s remarks that there were people who first destroyed Karachi and then sought help from the Indian intelligence agency RAW provoked Muttahida Qaumi Movement lawmakers.

There were allegations and counter-allegations in the house with an MQM protest against the comments responded by PPP legislators who also rose from their seats and countered the lawmakers.

Earlier, Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon intercepted the speech of Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Khwaja Izharul Hassan when the latter said that the chief minister ought to clarify the corps commander’s recent speech. The information minister said then there would be need to explain who had sought assistance from RAW.

Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani tried to bring the house in order until MQM parliamentary party leader Syed Sardar Ahmad and opposition leader Khwaja Izhar-ul-Hassan asked their party lawmakers to take their seats and let the minister complete his speech.

Earlier, Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah said the Sindh government spent Rs79 billion on Karachi’s development during the past six years. The city, where only two public sector universities existed until a couple of years back, has at present five varsities including the country’s first law university, according to him.

No fewer than 11 flyovers were under construction in Karachi at present, while it was also the Sindh government that had funded the construction of 10 flyovers before 2007, Mr Shah said.

He said the train project that had been conceived some 20 years back could not make any progress, but work on this project would start with Chinese assistance by the end of this year.

Mr Shah added that rapid bus project would also be initiated soon after the recently launched bus service that had linked Karachi to Sukkur, Larkana and Mirpurkhas.

About the K-IV water supply project, the chief minister said the government had allocated funds for the project, whose estimated cost was Rs25 billion, last year too. But the federal government that had promised to share half the expenses did not provide the fund. That’s the reason, the development scheme suffered, he said.

The conditions of the Civil Hospital Karachi and Abbasi Shaheed Hospital improved, while a trauma centre was under construction with a cost of Rs8 billion, he said.

The chief minister was responding to the criticism made by the opposition benches during the general discussion on the report of current financial expenditure and the new budget proposals. The lawmakers were of the opinion that Karachi development had been ignored in the budget.

Earlier, Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Khwaja Izhar-ul-Hassan said that despite the huge fund allocated for and spent on development in Karachi and other districts, their condition had not changed. This was one of the best developed cities across the world over a decade ago when it had a total budget of Rs19 billion, he said, asking where the Rs79 billion allocated in the current budget was being spent in Karachi.

He said the government had announced that year 2010 would be the year of local government elections but the MQM had been blamed for causing a delay by moving court against the controversial local government act. But after the court judgement, the MQM expected that the date for holding the local government elections would also be declared in the budget, he said.

He said the measures taken for Thar were good but there was need to alleviate poverty. He said he would visit every district to see government performance and it would be acceptable to him if the government took credit for the work it did.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play