KARACHI: The first day of post-budget debate in the Sindh Assembly on Tuesday witnessed disinterest and lethargy of the lawmakers as hardly 30 members in the house of 168 attended the proceedings.

Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah had last week presented a Rs2.25 trillion budget for the fiscal year 2023-24 with a deficit of Rs37.8 billion in the house.

As many as 13 lawmakers from the two sides of the aisle delivered speeches, mainly praising and criticising the provincial government for the next year budget. A couple of them invited the government’s attention to the problems and need of uplift schemes in their respective constituencies.

It was very unfortunate that not a single scheme of the opposition had been included in the budget, said Abdul Razzaq Rahimoon of the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) while opening the general debate on the budget.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan MPA Wasim Qureshi said that billions of rupees had been kept for peace and security in the city where the situation was that 186 citizens were targeted during robberies while 19,000 motorcycles and more than 9,000 mobile phones were snatched or stolen.

Only 30 of 168 lawmakers attend first day of post-budget discussion; 13 of them take part in debate

PPP MPA Sharmila Faroqui in her speech lauded the Sindh government for presenting a ‘pro-people’ budget.

She said Rs1,180 billion were earmarked in the budget for the development schemes in Karachi. The Malir Expressway project was near to complete, she added.

The PPP MPA said the uplift schemes of Rs56 billion had been completed in the city while works were in progress on Rs200 billion other schemes there.

Besides, she said, Rs701 billion foreign-funded schemes were launched in the city while Rs27 billion were allocated to the local government department for uplift projects in Karachi.

The PPP lawmaker said Rs182 billion uplift schemes for Karachi were allocated in the next budget while Rs256 billion projects were launched on the public-private mode in Karachi during the current fiscal year.

She said the provincial government allocated funds every year in the budget for the K-IV water project. “However, the federal government has yet to give approval for this project,” she said.

‘Hyderabad neglected in budget’

MQM-P MPA from Hyderabad Nadeem Siddiqui said that Hyderabad paid Rs60 billion in taxes, but the city had been neglected in the budget.

He demanded that the industrial zone of Hyderabad should be expanded and attention should also be paid to the deteriorating condition of schools in Hyderabad.

The MQM-P lawmaker said that not a single scheme was included for Hyderabad in the next budget.

He said that the industrialists of the province were shifting their capital and industries to Punjab where they were getting due facilities, including one-window operation in the industrial zones.

The MQM-P MPA said the industrialists were facing a great deal of difficulties for new electricity connections and other infrastructural facilities in the industrial zone of Hyderabad and Nooriabad.

He demanded the provincial government for water and other infrastructural facilities for the industrial zones in the next budget.

MQM-P lawmaker Shahina Ashar lauded the performance of the health department and demanded improvement of Abbasi Shaheed Hospital with added facilities.

PPP’s Kulsom Chandio, Zulfiqar Ali Shah, Ghazala Sial, Ijaz Shah Bukhari, Faqir Sher Muhammad and Hina Dastagir while MQM’s Nasir Qureshi, Shahana Ashar and Adeel Sshahzad also spoke on the budget.

Disgruntled PTI lawmaker attends session

Malik Shehzad Awan, a defected member of the Pakistan Tekreek-i-Insaf (PTI), also arrived to attend the assembly session. He had announced his separation from the PTI a few days ago.

When Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani asked him if he also wanted to deliver a speech on the budget, Mr Awan said he would speak on Friday.

Later, the house was adjourned to Wednesday at 10:30am.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2023