QUETTA, June 29: The Balochistan Assembly passed Rs42.38 billion budget for year 2004-05 after opposition members walked out of the House to protest against what they alleged discrimination in the allocation of Provincial Social Development Programme (PSDP) funds.

Rising on a point of order, opposition leader Abdur Rahim Ziaratwal alleged that opposition members had been allocated only Rs1.8 billion collectively for development schemes in their constituencies while Rs5.3 billion had been allocated for treasury bench members in the budget.

The opposition members later staged a walkout from the budget session. Finance Minister Syed Ehsan Shah earlier presented 40 demands of grants for Rs29.60 billion for non-development expenditure and 5 demands of grants for Rs12.78 billion for development sector for year 2004-05 and the House approved all 46 demands for grants.

Speaking on the occasion Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Muhammad Yousuf said that the protest was the democratic right of opposition members but the protestors should not violate democratic values and established traditions of the province.

He said issues could not be resolved by threats or pressure tactics. He said opposition members in the National Assembly and other three provincial assemblies had also reservations on allocation of their share in development schemes for their constituencies but they had never attempted to impose their will on the government.

He regretted that the opposition in the Balochistan Assembly was playing a different role. He said the provincial government would never do injustice with opposition members in allocation of development funds as the PSDP had been prepared improving the living standard of all people of the province.

He said differences on funds' allocation issue could be resolved through discussion and by a spirit of tolerance and mutual accommodation. Highlighting the performance of the provincial government on different issues the chief minister said that the provincial government had taken a principled stand in NFC meetings, adding that he had told the federal finance minister that Balochistan government representatives would walk out of NFC deliberations if their proposals were bulldozed in the meeting.

The chief minister said that he had also discussed the issue of funds with President Pervez Musharraf who had held out an assurance that the province would get the just share from the NFC.

He expressed the hope that Prime Minister Chaudhary Shujjat Hussain, who had always been sympathetic to demands of smaller provinces, would provide huge funds for development of Balochistan.

He said he would soon meet Chaudhary Shujjat and discuss problems confronted by the province. He chief minister said that 250 female doctors would be recruited in the province while the cabinet would decide about accommodating jobless agriculture graduates.