KARACHI: Some 21 lawmakers spoke in a rare congenial atmosphere in the Sindh Assembly — totally in contrast with what happened a day before — during discussion on the provincial budget for the remaining nine months of the current fiscal on Friday.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s Khwaja Izharul Hasan and ruling Pakistan Peoples Party’s Agriculture Minister Ismail Rahu had briefly brought up the touchy issue of ethnic sensitivities for a while but both of them felt it better not to fan the flames similar to what was witnessed during speeches made by MQM-P’s Mohammad Hussain and PPP’s Sohail Siyal on Thursday.

The rules of the game were reset in the chamber of Speaker Siraj Durrani before resumption of the day’s session on Friday morning in which parliamentary leaders of the parties gave assurances that no one would criticise leadership of the rival parties.

The chair allowed 12 members from the opposition and nine from the treasury benches to speak during the session, which started at 11am and lasted till 8.30pm.

The five days allotted for discussion on the budget proved to be insufficient as the chair said the remaining speakers, including the chief minister and the leader of the opposition, would speak on Saturday (today).

Session proceeds relatively smoothly compared to bitterness seen on Thursday

In the last five days, a total of 91 members discussed the budget, which included 49 from the opposition and 42 of them belonged to the treasury benches.

Out of 31 female members in the assembly, 22 took part in the discussion in the past five days.

Shadow budget

Khwaja Izhar said his party had been presenting shadow budget in the past for several years for which the party’s parliamentarians would make great efforts.

However, he said, “when we saw our shadow budgets, which we would give to the then governments repeatedly land in dustbins, we stopped such efforts two years ago”.

He said the PPP had presented its first budget of its first tenure in 2008, which was less than Rs250bn and now it had quadrupled and crossed the trillion-rupee mark.

“You have presented 11th budget, yet, we see no change in your manifesto.”

Mr Hasan, who was leader of the opposition in the previous assembly, said 94 per cent of the taxes being collected by the provincial government were indirect, which affected the ones having little say in the power corridors.

He criticised continuous delays in the provincial finance commission, saying all districts of Sindh should get their due share and rights.

He claimed just Rs7bn were spent on the development of Karachi in the past one year. He suggested the provincial government should apply the model of the National Finance Commission Award, keep 42.5pc of the funds with itself and distribute the remaining 57.5 among districts under the criteria of poverty, revenue generation, size of area and population.

‘Handicapped’ LG system

He dubbed the existing local government system as ‘handicapped’ and said the government had promised to install security cameras in the city in 2008, but it had failed to install them after passage of a decade.

He said he was a Pakistani and spoke the country’s national language.

PPP’s Jam Khan Shoro hurled remarks directed towards the MQM-P, saying, “who had asked people to sell their TVs and purchase Kalashnikovs, you were involved in creating fear among people and collecting extortion money, you were the cause of economic crisis and now you say people of Karachi are deprived because of us”.

Mr Rahu said Rs5bn had been allocated for development in agriculture sector, which included schemes for solar tube wells, improving watercourses etc to irrigate barren lands and those lands affected by waterlogging.

He said a notification had been issued for establishment of consumer courts and such courts would soon be established in the six divisions of Sindh.

He said most members sitting on the opposition benches were enjoying power in Islamabad and instead of complaining they should help the Sindh government.

He said people who had migrated from India and settled in other parts of the country did not call themselves Mohajir.

“It is necessary to [remove] all sorts of biases to bring up congenial atmosphere in Sindh.”

GDA’s parliamentary leader Hasnain Mirza said the PPP had spent Rs1,400bn on development of Sindh, yet real development could hardly be seen in the province.

He also demanded the provincial finance commission, saying his constituency Badin and other mineral- and oil-rich districts were the poorest of all. He also demanded for a centralised ambulance service in Sindh.

PPP’s Murtaza Baloch said Malir was the largest district of Karachi by size with around 70pc of the city’s land mass. He said the government had offered good plans for development of Malir. Raja Razzaq, also a Malir MPA of the PPP, said people would resist all anti-Sindh plans.

PTI’s Riaz Haider claimed police was behind trafficking of drugs.

GDA’s Nand Kumar said the government had promised health insurance in 2008 to people, which had not yet been fulfilled.

PPP’s Lalchand Ukrani said the prime minister should award citizenship to illegal aliens and refugees and house them in his Banigala mansion.

He said people belonging to Hindu community, including him, had received calls from unknown numbers in which they had been asked not to vote for the PPP. “But, we’ll never leave the party; it is the only hope for our being here in Pakistan.”

PPP’s Heer Soho said the government had built 60 small dams and construction on more was under way.

PTI’s Dua Bhutto said people were dying of poverty because of PPP’s bad governance.

Earlier, leader of the opposition Firdous Naqvi said both the sides should apologise for what happened a day earlier. He said sacrifices of Mohajirs for Pakistan should be realised.

PPP’s Nasir Shah said he apologised for controversial speeches made from both the sides.

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2018