KARACHI, June 28: Heated debate continued on Wednesday in the City District Council session when both the treasury and opposition benches advanced their arguments while speaking on 2006-07 budget of the city.
The meeting was convened by Niab Nazim Nasreen Jalil who had to repeatedly remind members to maintain decorum of the house.
Opposition member Saifuddin initiated the debate. Pointing out various ambiguities in the budget, he said that the city government should utilize development funds through union councils as was required under Sections 32, 78 and 109 of the SLGO as was practiced by the former city Nazim.
He also pointed that the implementation report of the ongoing development projects was not presented in the house which was mandatory under Section 28(2) of the SGLO which was not done.
Continuing his speech, Mr Saifullah said that the final budget had been illegally presented in the finance committee. Instead it should have been referred to the budget committee of the council as was required under the SGLO. He also argued that the KBCA comes under the purview of the City Government but its budget was not presented in the house which is totally an illegal act.
He demanded that Lyari and Malir development authorities should be merged into the CDGK and ultimately be handed to towns according to Section 182 of the SLGO. He also called for handing recovery of trade licence fees and commercialization fees to union councils.
Defending the budget, treasury member Abdul Jalil blasted some of the opposition members for repeatedly raising the issue of residence of the City Nazim, saying the Nazim had a right to acquire accommodation according to his status and convenience.
He said the building of Karachi Diagnostic Centre had been converted into the residence of the Nazim because of its legal status of the land which is residential.
Mr Jalil admitted that there were some typographical mistakes in some of the pages of the budget documents, but he said the budget was prepared according to the law and there was no serious violation of rules as being claimed by the opposition member.
He also dispelled the impression that the budget was prepared without any consultation, saying the City Nazim had consulted all town nazims, including those of opposition in separate meetings.
He told the house that the KBCA budget was not included in the CDGK budget because it is an independent authority while the Lyari and Malir development authorities were made separate bodies.
The treasury member said the CDGK had launched a multi-billion rupees special package for development of Lyari and it is indicative that the government was keenly interested to develop this backward area. He asked the opposition members to shun the negative attitude and give credit where it is due.
Mr Jalil said old hoardings were being removed from the city and new designs with uniformity would be introduced to give the city a beautiful look and this would also help increase revenue of the city government. and added that steps were being taken to extend tax net to improve recovery.
He also defended the government action for carrying out massive road work, saying it had created hardships for people for the time being , but they would be benefited in the long run.
Some of the opposition members objected to personal remarks of Mr Jalil against a house member and some rowdy scenes were witnessed on this occasion. However, the convener controlled the situation and asked the members of both sides to maintain the decorum of the house and not to make personal remarks.
Other members who took part in the debate included Naseem Khan and Mirza Afaq Beg.
Meanwhile, two opposition members Rafique Ahmed and Saifuddin submitted a resolution regarding the current power situation and water supply position for consideration of the house. The house will meet again on Thursday.
In the evening session, Shahana Asha’r, Juman Darban, Mohammad Arif, Sheikh Mehboobur Rahman, Suleman Baloch, Abdul Rasheed Beg, Imran Ahmed, Mirza Abbas Beg, Ehsan Siddiqui, Rafique Saeed, Abdul Wasay and others spoke. The treasury members defended the budget while the opposition slammed budget.