KARACHI: On the 4th day of general discussion on the 2015-16 budget in the Sindh Assembly, the alleged corruption of the PPP government was highlighted by opposition lawmakers, particularly by former Sindh Chief Minister Liaquat Ali Jatoi and Nusrat Sehar Abbasi of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional, while speakers from the treasury benches Imdad Ali Pitafi and Fayyaz Butt, in particular, countered the opposition attack by recalling the past when they were in power.

However, the speech heard most attentively was made by Abdul Haseeb Khan of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, who quoted relevant verses from the Holy Quran.

Nusrat Sehar Abbasi mixed her speech with breaking news on channels and drew applause from the opposition benches when she said that one of the women speakers from the treasury benches had said that she would not say Aoozu Billah because its repeated utterance would make many opposition members disappear.

Ms Abbasi said there was no need to read the anti-Satan verse as there was breaking news on TV channels about the arrest of “corrupt elements” – Muhammad Ali Shahikh, Mumtaz Zardari and others. She asked on whose instruction they had plundered Sindh and said: “I salute NAB, the Rangers and other law enforcement agencies who arrested the corrupt people.”

She asked the people of Sindh to remain vigilant lest the Rs739 billion new budget presented in the assembly made its way into the bungalows of corrupt politicians.

She said though a protest was being lodged to the federal government for not paying its due to Sindh, when the PPP was in the federal government what was given to Sindh. She also asked how many times the leader of the opposition of the PPP had staged a walkout on the issue.

When the speaker reminded the lawmaker to keep herself to the budget and not to drift to TV tickers, Ms Abbasi said she was only showing the trailer of corruption in the house and its full film would itself appear on the screen after some time.

Imdad Ali Pitafi of the PPP said those hurling allegations of corruption on the government were the very people who were responsible for destroying Sindh. Syed Waqar Hussain Shah of the MQM said that in Karachi about 10 colleges had been under construction for the last 10 years.

These schemes be completed this year and 188 schemes proposed by the MQM for the new budget be made part of the new ADP so that the MQM could play its role in the construction and progress of Sindh.

The MQM lawmaker said that as the government had provided subsidy to the rural people, the poor in the cities be provided subsidy on wheat flour, ghee and sugar.

Samar Ali Khan, PTI parliamentary party leader, said the budget was not realistic. The tax collection did not meet its targets but the budget was made on inflated amounts.

He said the recovery of tax from agriculturalists was only 0.4 per cent. There was a need to make the budget revolutionary by increasing savings, eliminating corruption and reducing non-development expenditure and improving governance.

Shaheena Baloch of the PPP said the government was taking every possible measure to take care of the needs of the people and asked the opposition that instead of criticising the budget, if they visit their own constituencies, they would find development work in progress.

Saeed Khan Nizamani of the PML-F said that during the last seven years of the PPP rule the government had failed to deliver to the people.

Earlier, Liaquat Ali Jatoi, ex-chief minister, said if the centre was doing injustice to Sindh by depriving it of its due share in the divisible pool, the government should go to court and the opposition would stand by it.

Abdul Haseeb Khan of the MQM said there was no allocation for the cities in the budget. Even the 97 development schemes, with an estimated cost of Rs9,530 million of the 2014-15, ADP were dropped from the ADP schemes and there was

no road schemes for Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur. In the outgoing budget, Rs400 million allocated for District West Karachi had not been released. He said Haji Muzaffar Shujra, who is coordinator of the CM’s Inspection team, had pointed out to the rampant corruption, and the government should pay attention to it.

Fayyaz Butt of the PPP criticised Liaquat Jatoi and his tenure as chief minister.

The other speakers in the session were Syed Ghulam Shah Jilani of the PPP, Saeed Nizamani of the PML-F and Deevan Chand Chaowla of the MQM.

Seaker Agha Siraj Durrani, who called the house in order at 10.45am, called it a day at 2pm to meet on Saturday at 10am, which will be the last day of general discussion on the budget.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2015

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