ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif found himself fending off accusations of equating deaths from violent crimes in Karachi to ‘dying flies’ in the National Assembly on Tuesday, before vowing billions of rupees in full federal financing for a modern bus service for the city and partial financing for a proper water supply project there.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Altaf Hussain had demanded — in a speech from London over the weekend — that the PM apologise and resign for allegedly saying in a speech that Karachi went on strike even if a common housefly is killed.

Speaking during the budget debate in the house on Tuesday, MQM’s deputy parliamentary leader Abdul Rashid Godail called for an end to what he called “talk of flies” as he criticised the budget for financial year 2015-16.

This prompted the prime minister, who had arrived in the house during Mr Godail’s speech, to rise and explain that it was not he, but somebody else who had made the remark in the first instance in a meeting in Karachi with reference to frequent strike calls — given mostly by the MQM — to shut down the country’s commercial capital.

He did not specify who initially made the remark and said that after Sindh Governor Ishratul Ebad repeated the remark, he asked him in a speech to “take notice” of this trend, and that all this was said in a “lighter vein”.

Hoping his clarification would satisfy the MQM member, the PM, referring to the lawmaker’s complaint of water shortages in Karachi, said he had already spoke to Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and assured him that the federal government would match the Rs2.5 billion provincial allocation for the K-4 water supply project in Karachi.

He said Rs2bn from the federal contribution had already been released, while the remaining Rs500 million would be provided soon. However, he said if the provincial government gave Rs20bn for the Karachi water supply project, “we will provide Rs10bn”.

But he said the planned Green Line bus service for Karachi, for which Rs5bn had already been earmarked against a total cost of Rs25bn, would be totally financed by the federal government as a “gift” for Karachi.

Then, the prime minister went on about the planned network of motorways to link all provinces, including the one between Karachi and Hyderabad, work on which had begun with the construction of culverts and should be completed by the middle of 2017.

The PM said a meeting he had chaired earlier in the day also discussed plans for road links with Central Asia, including the one with the ancient Uzbek city of Termez, near Afghanistan’s Hairatan border crossing, for an eventual linkup with Gwadar port.

But, in his speech, he failed to mention a farmers’ protest, held outside the Parliament House to demand incentives for the agriculture sector in the new budget.

Even though Inter-Provincial Coordination Minister Riaz Hussain Pirzada had told the house earlier that the prime minister would hold an exclusive meeting with members from the agriculture sector to discuss issues such as prices of inputs and the impact of climate change, no such gesture was forthcoming.

Leader of Opposition Khursheed Ahmed Shah had earlier informed the house about a sit-in by protesters from different parts of the country, demanding the abolition of general sales tax on fertilisers and tractors.

On a suggestion from Speaker Ayaz Sadiq, the Minister for Food Security and Research, Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan, and Mr Pirzada, went out to meet the protesters.

Landowning lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, particularly those from Punjab and Sindh, were quite vocal during the debate, accusing the government of removing incentives and lowering the prices of their produce.

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2015

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