After the unveiling of Sindh’s budget last week was met with protests by opposition lawmakers, PPP Senator Quratulain Marri on Monday lamented that Sindh was “being treated like a colony of the federation”.

Last week, Sindh Chief Minister Shah Murad had also warned that the PPP — a coalition partner of the PML-N-led federal government — would not support the passage of the federal budget in parliament if Islamabad continued to manage development schemes in Sindh instead of transferring them to the provincial government.

“The federal government has wronged us. They have dissolved the Public Works Department (PWD), which was responsible for overseeing development projects across provinces,” Murad had said, adding that while the other three provinces received funding for development projects accompanied by their budgets, Sindh was completely overlooked.

Senator Marri, chairing a meeting of the Senate Planning and Development Committee today, questioned why Sindh was “being treated like a colony of the federation,” as the committee protested the exclusion of PWD from development projects.

Her comments came after Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal said during the last meeting of the committee that “federal execution agencies for each project decide who they are more comfortable working with — federal government or provincial. And we have distributed projects based on only that.”

“It was decided that PWD projects would be given to Sindh,” Marri said. “The same was decided in the National Economic Council, that PWD projects will be given to provinces.”

“Now, these projects are being given to every province except Sindh,” Marri lamented, adding that the Sindh government was “very concerned about this move from the federation”.

Senator Marri highlighted that Sindh was being treated unfairly despite being promised its rights.

“All provinces should be treated equally and be given control of projects,” she added.