KARACHI: Setting aside the rules of business of the Sindh Assembly during the Saturday session that had been fixed for a general discussion on the provincial budget 2015-16, senior ministers, the leader of the opposition and even the speaker could not help sharing their concern over prolonged outages during the fasting month.

The high-handedness of K-Electric, Hyderabad and Sukkur Electric Power Companies was highlighted in the assembly when Karachi and Sukkur sizzled at 45 and 48 degrees Celsius, respectively.

Soon after the house was called to order by Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani at 11.15am, Leader of the Opposition Khwaja Izharul Hassan rising from his seat drew the attention of the chair to the sufferings of Karachiites at Sahar and Iftar on the very first day of Ramazan when he said 70 per cent areas of Karachi had plunged into darkness due to loadshedding.

Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani said his residential area, too, faced power loadshedding. Not only Karachi but the rural areas of Sindh too faced similar situation, deplored senior minister Nisar Ahmad Khuhro. Everyone was well aware who controlled Wapda, Hesco and Sepco, he added.

Finance Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, who is a also senior minister, informed the house that Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari had written a letter to the prime minister seeking his attention to prolonged loadshedding hours in Sindh.

Besides, the minister said, he himself had held three meetings with the officials of the ministry of water and power.

A resolution could be taken up in the house in this regard after the budget discussion, he added.

After giving vent to their feelings on the issue of outages, lawmakers continued the general discussion on the budget. By 3.55pm, 17 lawmakers — nine belonging to the PPP, four representing the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, two from the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional and one each representing the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz — had participated in the discussion on the budget. While many lawmakers and ministers were yet to take part in the general discussion, the session was adjourned for Monday that can be the last day of general discussion on the budget.

In their speeches, PPP lawmakers including Mumtaz Jakhrani, Dr Lalchand, Khairunnisa Mughal and minister Manzoor Wasan, and deputy speaker Shehla Raza mainly talked about the schemes being implemented by their party in Sindh.

However, Mr Wasan’s remarks that people learnt corruption from the Muslim Leaguers drew strong protest from the PML-F and PML-N lawmakers. He demanded that the Rangers and NAB inquire into the Qadirpur gas fields complaint, occupation of 100,000-acre forest land, a piece of land reserved for Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Park, the B-section police station in Khairpur and the bungalows built on the Karachi Textile Mill land in Khairpur.

PML-F lawmaker Nand Kumar Goklani said the Rangers and NAB could investigate corruption cases and the misuse of authority since 1988, claiming that he would not escape to avoid the investigation.

Quoting figures from the budget documents, PTI lawmaker Dr Seema Zia said the budget could not be termed people’s budget.

MQM lawmaker Dr Zafar Kamali said Mirpurkhas had been ignored in the annual development programme.

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2015

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