KARACHI, March 18: The City Council approved on Monday Rs549 million first excess and surrender budget 2001-2002 of the city government with the support of the majority of the members after a heated debate.

However, as soon as the Council adopted a resolution giving approval to the revised budget, some members of the Council who had earlier demanded that the amount that had been shown excess in the revised budget be equally given to union councils for undertaking development works, staged a walkout, saying adoption of the resolution was illegal.

The members of the Al-Khidmat and Jamhoori groups, who had endorsed the resolution, said there was every justification for approving the revised budget as not only had the legal experts of the city government given their consent to the First Excess and Surrender budget but all the legal formalities had also been completed in this regard.

The city government’s executive officer (Finance) and executive officer (Legal), giving their opinion on the resolution, had clarified that under Section 109 (4) of the Sindh Local Government Ordinance-2001, the City Council could not allocate any amount from the city government’s budget, except district tax, to the union councils.

The budget was approved after the 10-member committee, which the Council had formed in its March 5 session for sorting out the differences that had cropped up among its members over the approval of the revised budget, placed its report before the house.

The city government’s finance and planning departments prepared the budget to meet the financial needs of its medical and other new departments for the period beginning from January 2002 to June 30, 2002.

The city government’s executive district officer (Finance) assisted the committee in its work relating to the first excess and surrender budget of the city government’s different departments.

The members of the committee which had been tasked with submitting its report about the budget were the Council’s finance committee chairman, Nazeer Ahmed Sajid, legal-aid committee’s chairman, Younus Sohan, advocate, and members of the house Siddiq Rathore, Engineer Abdul Aziz, Najmi Alam, Malik Mohammed Taj, Abdul Rasheed Baig, Ms Shama Arif Mithani, Ms Musferah Jamal and Sharif Awan.

The resolution pertaining to the revised budget was moved by Engineer Abdul Aziz and seconded by Najmi Alam.

Taking part in the debate, Siddiq Rathore asked the house who had proposed the committee, and said the convener, Tariq Hasan, told him that he formed it with the approval of the house. Mr Rathore claimed that the convener had no authority to form such committee under the SLGO-2000.

Accusing the bureaucracy of fooling the house, he said it was strange that the legal adviser did not even know what grant-in-aid was or what the difference was between budget and grant-in-aid.

Another member of the house, Mehfooz-un-Nabi, Khan said the committee’s report on the budget’s reappropriation was unsatisfactory because it did not consider any other option except justifying the official memorandum in support of the first excess surrender.

He was of the view that the committee’s report should have been circulated among the members of the house at least five days before discussing it in the house.