KARACHI: Concluding the post-budget debate in a thinly-attended session of the Sindh Assembly on Friday, Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said that the provincial government spent Rs2.6 trillion on salaries and Rs840 billion on development projects during the past five years.

He said that during the last five years the province had received Rs3.8 trillion from the federal government and generated Rs1.2tr revenue from its own resources.

“In this way, during the last five years, the Sindh government has spent Rs5tr, of them Rs2.6tr was spent on government employees’ salaries, retirement expenditures and pensions,” he added.

The leader of the house said that during the last five years, the Sindh government had spent Rs442bn in the head of non-development expenditures of local government, Rs909bn on education, including Rs48.9bn on grants to the educational institutions/universities.

Province spent Rs2.6tr in five years only on salaries of govt employees, PA told

He said that during last five years, the Sindh government had utilised Rs840bn on development.

CM Shah, who also holds the portfolio of finance, said that Rs166bn was earmarked for Karachi alone in the provincial budget 2023-24.

In a lighter vein, he said that Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s Khawaja Izharur Hassan, who spoke on the budget a day before, used to deliver impressive speeches but this time his speech was not up to the mark.

Terming the MQM-P a mature party, he urged it not to blame the PPP for its own weaknesses.

Speaking about the population census, he said in 2017 he made it clear that the results of the 2017 national exercise were not acceptable.

“The CCI approved the census with five per cent validation in 2018. In 2020 the matter came again in the Council of Common Interest and I gave a dissenting note and challenged it in parliament,” he recalled.

Speaking on the floor of the house, Labour Minister Saeed Ghani claimed that the PPP would get 20 seats of the provincial assembly from Karachi in the next general elections.

He alleged that the Jamaat-i-Islami had used Al-Khidmat funds in the election campaign for Karachi mayor.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s disgruntled MPA Malik Shehzad Awan, who recently parted ways with the party after May 9 riots, in his speech condemned what he called political victimisation of “innocent” PTI members under the garb of May 9 riot cases.

The PTI dissident from Baldia Town also spoke at length about the civic and infrastructure issues in several localities and union committees in his constituency.

The parliamentary party leader of the MQM-P, Rana Ansar, said that most of the ministers instead of apprising the house of progress of their respective departments, mainly focused their speeches on the past situation of Karachi.

She said that the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre and Dr Ruth KM Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi could not cater to increasing number of patients, asking the provincial government to increase healthcare facilities.

She also hailed the government over establishment of the Gambat Institute of Medical Sciences where liver transplants were being conducted and demanded that such centres be built across the province.

PPP’s Munawwar Wassan, Ismail Rahoo, Imdad Pitafi, Mir Shabbir Bijarani, Sajid Jokhio, Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh, Taimur Talpur, Jam Khan Shoro, Fayaz Butt, Dr Azra Pechuhu, Mir Nadir Magsi, Saeed Ghani and Syed Nasir Hussain Shah also spoke.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2023