LARKANA, June 25: The district council could not begin budget debate in its Friday's meeting as the finance department had not finalized budgetary allocations after receiving a one-line budget from the Sindh government.

As the session began, convener Nazir Bughio informed the members that the finance and planning department was busy in finalizing budget proposals and a detailed copy of the budget would be available with the members by Monday.

Reacting to the situation, Badar Abbasi, Mohammed Hayat Shaikh, Khair Mohammed Shaikh, Ghulam Rasool Noonari, Ali Sher Daipar, Amir Bakhsh Gaad and others criticized the delay in finalizing budgetary allocations.

District Nazim Khursheed Ahmed Junejo, defending the delay, said that the Sindh government had allocated a meagre amount for the district government budget which had a deficit of Rs274 million.

He said that the district government had filled the deficit from its opening balance of Rs226 million and added that the finance and planning department was finalizing the budget focusing on how to achieve savings.

The savings could be utilized in the next budget, the district nazim said. The convenor prorogued the meeting till Monday.

Wana operation: Pakistan Khaksar Tehrik chief Hamiduddin al-Mashraqi has predicated that the Wana operation and the killing of Nek Mohammed will effect negatively on the country.

Talking to journalists here on Thursday, he claimed that undertaking an operation against nationals of Pakistan on behest of the USA would eventually harm the solidarity and integrity of the country and foster separatist trends.

Perceiving the recent Karachi incidents as backfire of the Wana operation, he feared that national as well as international terrorists were concentrating there.

He was of the opinion that President General Pervez Musharraf's ongoing consultations with legislators indicated that something serious was being cooked up in Islamabad, that might emerge as in-house changes or fresh elections.

Linking the water predicament with the Kashmir issue, he anticipated highly-tensed future relations among the provinces.

The chief also criticized the federal budget in which the poor had been neglected.