KARACHI, June 16: It was yet another day of serious business in the Sindh Assembly when members from both treasury and opposition benches keenly participated in the debate on the provincial budget on Thursday.

A total of 15 legislators — eight from the opposition and seven from the treasury side – expressed their views during the day’s deliberations.

The opposition members who were given the floor said the documents in the budget were nothing but a ‘jugglery of numbers’, and noted that the budget was devoid of any relief to common man.

They also flayed the government for implicating MPA Zahid Bhurgari in a ‘false’ case and subjecting him to insulting behaviour. However, all but one speakers from the treasury benches avoided comments on the Bhurgari issue. The only one, Rajveer Singh, expressed his concern over the maltreatment with an elected member, saying that the matter should be taken up with the chief minister. At the same time, he also reminded the opposition that those from the opposition parties had meted out a similar treatment to their opponents while in power.

The treasury members termed the budget ‘development-oriented’, and referred to the Rs28 billion ADP where preference was given to accelerate progress and bring improvement in all spheres of social sector with focus being on education, health care, communication and infrastructure.

As the debate on budget commenced after question hour, with Mohammad Hussain, a member of panel of chairmen in the chair, Syed Murad Ali Shah of PPP was given the floor. Mr Shah, who seemed to have done a lot of home work, appeared articulate in his arguments. He quoted from several budget documents, as well as the constitution, to prove that discrepancies did exist in the figures of the documents. He also tried to prove that presenting a budget without the NFC Award having been announced, was unconstitutional. However, the treasury benches continued to insist that his arguments were invalid.

The PPP member cited article 160 to stress that “president cannot make award; he can only make amendments to the law regarding distribution”. He also pin-pointed the contradiction in the statements of the adviser to the PM on finance, who had claimed that Sindh had agreed to go back on principle, and the Sindh finance minister, who had denied the provincial government having compromised on principles in this regard.

On his initiative, the house by a voice vote condemned the statement of the adviser.

Mr Shah, however, insisted that the Sindh government had gone back on the provincial assembly’s resolution on the NFC Award, contending that had the resolution been honoured, the province would have received Rs316 billion and not Rs86 billion.

He also pointed out that the federal government had swindled the Sindh government out of Rs271 million from the divisible pool, and in this regard spoke of a discrepancy in calculations. He said Sindh had suffered a loss of Rs229 billion due to the non-finalization of the NFC Awards.

Referring to a deficit of Rs9 billion in the budget, he said instead of going for unnecessary heavy spending like procurement of aircraft and PPO office operating expenses of Rs1.08 billion, the government should curtail such expenditure in order to make the budget surplus.

Welfare Minister Syed Ali Bakhsh Shah alias Pappu Shah appreciated allocations for development of road network, and said it would benefit agriculturists and industrialist. He said that there was a need to make joint efforts to get Sindh’s due share in the NFC Award fixed.

Ayaz Soomro of the PPP said that new districts had been carved out, though to the benefit of certain influential persons, but no money had been allocated for the new districts.

He called for relaxation in age for those Sindh domicile-holders seeking a job in provincial departments, arguing that the ban on recruitment had remained in place for 10 years.

Minister for Women Development Dr Saeeda Malik expressed the hope that the release of Rs5.1 billion by the federal government would help contain the budget deficit. She also complained that her department was ignored in the budget. She also put forward some suggestions checking deadly diseases.

Ali Nawaz Shah from the PPP pointed out that the resolutions adopted by the house with consensus regarding NFC, Kalabagh Dam, Greater Thal Canal, etc were not being implemented. The commitment made by the government last year to recruit 30,000 people was also not fulfilled. How could a government win Sindh’s due share in the NFC while it had miserably failed in ensuring even payment of premium to sugarcane cultivators? he wondered.

Jam Madad Ali of the PML-F called for revival of closed schools in the interior by recruiting teachers. He said more primary, middle and high schools for girls should be established. He also demanded proper facilities for the treatment of hepatitis in rural areas.

Nawab Wassan of the PPP said the budget provided no package for the poor, while it was bound to destroy education and health facilities.

Minister for Information Technology Mustafa Kamal described the ADP as the biggest ever development programme. He claimed that the MMA’s had adopted different stands on the NFC Award viz-a-viz Sindh and the NWFP.

He pointed out that multinational companies had brought an investment of $150 million in the IT sector in Sindh. This, he added, would offer jobs to about 24,000 youths.

Shazia Marri of the PPP pointed out that due to 1997 NFC Award, announced while there was a caretaker government in place, Sindh had been deprived Rs271 million being its due share.

She criticized spending as extravagance on various accounts, including the huge amount of over Rs12 billion on law and order, no less than Rs13 million for teargas alone. Such a heavy spending, she added, could not change the disturbing ground realities.

She deplored that Rs234 million had been spent on the Rangers which had become another burden on Sindh budget though no improvement in law and order had been brought about.

Nasreen Chandio and Shama Mithani of the PPP, Ms Gulzar Unnar of the PML, Minister Sardar Manzoor Panhwar, and Maulana Ehsanullah Hazarvi of the MMA also took part in the discussion.

Deputy Speaker Ms Rahila Tiwana also presided over the session for some time.

Speaker Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah chaired the session during the last few speeches. Before he called it a day at about 4.30pm, speakers from both the sides expressed their concern over the increasing number of hepatitis cases in the province. They demanded prompt and appropriate measures for prevention and treatment of the disease.

The house will resume discussion on budget at 9am on Friday.