Opposition parties reject budget

Karachi
All opposition parties in the Sindh Assembly rejected the provincial budget for the fiscal year 2015-16 announced on Saturday, contending that it provided no relief to the masses.
Besides, with the exception of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, all other opposition parties including the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz staged a walkout from the House while provincial finance minister Murad Ali Shah was announcing the budget in protest against not incorporating their recommendations in it.
PML-N’s disgruntled MPA former chief minister Liaquat Ali Jatoi accompanied them too.
The opposition MPAs started shouting in protest as soon as the finance minister started presenting the budget, also making it difficult for the journalists covering the event in the gallery reserved for them as the sound system there had malfunctioned.
Later, the opposition parties while talking to reporters outside the assembly hall described the budget as “anti-poor” and containing no relief for the common man.
PML-N MPA Nand Kumar said with the exception of Benazirabad (formerly Nawabshah), the government had ignored all other cities and towns of the province including Karachi in terms of development schemes.
“The Pakistan People’s Party has pushed the province hundreds of years back and the conditions in Sindh are no different that those in Somalia and Ethiopia,” he added.
“We were not taken into confidence before presenting the budget. Instead, they handed over the budget copies to us just an hour before the session.”
Jatoi told reporters that the government should explain the spending of Rs1.5 billion under the account of the maintenance of the Chief Minister’s House.
“I too have remained the chief minister, but never squandered public money like that,” he added.
He also asked as to where the Rs7 billion given

to the Sehwan town municipal officer had been spent.
“The PPP keeps winning seats in the province through rigging. This will be the last budget announced by the PPP as the people of the province want to get rid of these corrupt rulers.”
Jatoi also demanded that the government should publish the names of the 64 high-ups and political leaders who were involved in black money amounting to Rs230 billion every year as pointed out by the Sindh Rangers director general recently.
Ejaz Shah Shirazi from Thatta said the budget was nothing but jugglery of figures.
MQM’s Khawaja Izhar-ul-Hasan, the leader of the opposition in the provincial assembly, said his party’s MPAs had not staged a walkout from the House and preferred to listen to the finance minister’s speech and study the budget.
He added that after reviewing the budget, the MQM had reached the conclusion that it was disappointing and contained nothing to provide relief to the masses.
“We reject the budget as it’s a bundle of lies and fudged figures,” he noted.
“The government has failed to announce a budget that creates job opportunities and alleviates poverty.”
Hasan observed that the budget contained no mega projects for Karachi.
“The budget creates a divide between urban and rural areas.”
Besides, Hasan added, there were no significant initiatives in the budget for health, education and other important sectors.
“We will give a tough time to the government by presenting motions during budget discussions and also expose the flaws of its 35 departments.”
The MQM lawmaker said the provincial government had focused more on non-developmental expenditure, reducing the much-needed funds for uplift projects. Many MQM MPAs could not turn up at the assembly because of the party chief's address to activists in the morning.
MQM calls for strike
Describing the provincial budget for the fiscal year 2015-16 as biased and discriminatory that will divide the urban and rural areas, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement held a meeting on Saturday following which it called for a shutter-down strike on Sunday (today).
The meeting of the MQM Rabita committee was simultaneously held in Karachi and London.
Just a day earlier, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had told the Sindh governor that there should be no more strikes in the city. He had noted that strikes were called in Karachi over the most minor of issues such as the “death of a fly”.
MQM insiders told The News that apart from lodging its protest against the budget, the party also wanted to send a message across through its strike that it would not tolerate insulting remarks against the Mohajir community and it should not be taken for granted as they too were equal and patriotic citizens of the country.
The meeting in London and Karachi examined the salient features of budget and reached the conclusion that the provincial government had discriminated against the urban areas of the province and nothing had been allocated for the short- and long-term development of Karachi.
The MQM Rabita Committee appealed to traders and transporters to keep their businesses closed and vehicles off the roads respectively on Sunday to support the MQM.
MQM leader Dr Farooq Sattar said the budget was prepared with a feudal mindset.
“Many of our pre-budget proposals have been turned down including a solution to Karachi’s water crisis for which the MQM had staged a week-long protest,” he added.
He maintained that development projects including flyovers, roads and a mass transit system for the city were not even mentioned in the budget.
MQM’s Khawaja Izhar-ul-Hasan, the opposition leader in the provincial assembly, said the financial allocations in the budget were based on “hatred” and a complete ignorance of the needs of the urban areas.
He blamed the Pakistan People’s Party for ignoring the urban areas in the budget.
The MQM also sought an apology from the prime minister for comparing the residents of Karachi to flies.
Earlier while addressing party leaders and supporters at Nine Zero, MQM chief Altaf Hussain said in his telephonic speech that the party had extended a hand of friendship to Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari in the better interest of the country.
“Let’s join hands and be united against those who are conspiring to destabilise democracy in Pakistan,” he added.
Hussain asked Sharif and Zardari if they wanted a democratic Pakistan or one run by the military.
He urged leaders of other parties as well s the MQM to refrain from speaking against each other in talk shows and levelling allegations against each other.