KARACHI, June 29: The city council on Saturday approved the Rs20507.04 million surplus budget of the city government, with a majority vote in a noisy session.

Through a cut motion, the council approved the budget allocation of Rs3.5 million to UCs instead of Rs1 million while a majority of women and minority and labour councillors opposed it.

On the last day of the three-day budget session, a number of members spoke both in favour and against the budget and an uproar was witnessed when Hafiz Ahmed Ali criticized the political parties which led to a strong protest by other members.

However, the budget was approved when a cut motion was presented by about a dozen members belonging to all major groups of the House, including those from Al-Khidmat group, Jamhoori panel, Al-Khadim group, labour councillors and independent groups calling the members to approve the budget and allocate Rs623 million in the budget head in article No 5 (a)-3 LXIV.

According to a settlement reached between all the groups, each of 178 UCs of Karachi will get Rs3.5 million instead of Rs1 million for development works in their respective areas and funds would be transferred to them while an additional amount of Rs1 million will be given to them in the first excess and surrendered amount to be presented after four months.

The budget resolution was approved by a majority of the house members, while about six members opposed it and some of them called for a discussion on the proposed cut motion.

After the voting, at 5 pm, the Naib Nazim adjourned the house. It resulted in a uproar from a majority of women, minority and labour councillors besides the members of the house belonging to rural and under-developed areas of Karachi.

Later, some of the protesting members gathered in the Naib Nazim Secretariat where Tariq Hasan said that the cut motion had been signed by members of groups and was presented at about 3pm on Saturday, therefore, it is not necessary to invite another round of discussion.

He said it is clearly written in the agenda that the budget session would be held till Saturday noon and recalled that before adjourning the previous sessions, he always extended open invitation to members to speak on budget, therefore, nobody could say that they were not given enough time to speak.

Tariq Hasan said that legally the budget stands approved and it is not his jurisdiction to make changes in the budget. If someone had any grievances, they can register it but the budget has been approved unanimously in the council by all groups, while only five or six persons opposed it.

He also informed that some members had also proposed a resolution demanding Rs5 million budget for Naib Nazim Secretariat but “I myself opposed it”, he stated.

Regarding the grievances expressed by some members over budget presentation and under-hand deal with members of opposition groups, he said it was their internal matter and had nothing to with the proceedings of the house, besides all these accusations were hurled outside the house.

During the post-budget press conference, leader of the majority group Muslim Pervaiz thanked Almighty Allah and lauded the house for approving a surplus budget.

He was seated with members of all the groups in the house including Najmi Alam, Saeed Ghani, Jafarul Hasan, Taj Malik, Latif Butt, Kafeel Jafri and Zainul Abeedin, while Tazim Siddiqui, member of Al-Khadim group who had signed the pre-budget resolution, was with his group leader Siddique Rathore in a protest demonstration against the approved budget.

Muslim Pervaiz spoke about the budget and said that an amount of Rs623 million had been allocated for UCs and Nazim Karachi has been authorized to sanction cuts in different heads to accommodate this amount.

He said besides it has been agreed upon that the towns would be directed to accommodate all the UCs in their town to ensure that development work is done evenly in all areas.

Responding to an objection raised by Mangla Sharma that Hindus representation is nominal in the council, how would they expect development works, he said that all the areas of minority settlement are being treated according to their need and without any discrimination, whereas a majority of development projects in these areas are being done through other heads.

Speaking on the occasion, Najmi Alam said that our main objective is to provide more development funds to UCs and this demand had been approved, while it is up to the Nazim now to decide where to get the funds from.

Regarding allocation of half a million development fund to minority, women and labour councillors Saeed Ghani said he had always opposed this allocation as they do not have any specified jurisdiction and all the work is ultimately done by the UCs.

At a press conference, leader of Al-Khadim group, Siddique Rathore deplored the budget in strongest words and termed it anti-people.

He said a number of projects highlighted in the budget would prove to be fatal for the city and expressed apprehensions that the model mosque might become a centre of Al-Khidmat activities for which about Rs20 million have been allocated.

He was accompanied by Razzaq Sanghani, Mubarak Balouch, Ghulam Akber, Ghulam Abbas Talpur and others.

Women councillors held a separate press conference, led by Tahira Kaukab from Orangi, who said that Orangi town is backward area, but no special allocation had been made in the budget for uplift of Orangi Town whereas a huge amount is being spent to establish a women university and a radio channel.

She said that women councillors have not been taken into confidence and the amount Rs0.5 million being given to each of women, minority and labour councillor is quite inadequate.—PPI