Sindh Assembly’s budget session put off till 17th

The special session of the Sindh Assembly (PA) in which the provincial government is to present the budget for the remaining nine months of the current financial year would now be held on September 17 (Monday) instead of Friday (today).

There is no official word about the reason the special session of the provincial legislature has been postponed, but sources privy to the development said the decision has been taken in view of the nationwide mourning for the recent death of Kulsoom Nawaz, wife of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. The joint session of Parliament in Islamabad for the presidential address that was earlier scheduled for Thursday has been put off for the same reason.

The meeting of the Sindh cabinet that would pre-approve the budgetary estimates for the remaining nine months of the fiscal year 2018-19 has also been rescheduled to be conducted on Monday at the new PA Secretariat instead of today.

It has been learnt that the MPAs belonging to the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) have been invited to attend a dinner reception at the Chief Minister House on Sunday so that the PPP’s parliamentary party could discuss a strategy for the special budget session.

CM Syed Murad Ali Shah, who also holds the portfolio of the finance department, is likely to deliver the speech in the Sindh Assembly to present the government’s budgetary estimates for the period from October 2018 to June 2019.

Before the completion of its tenure, the previous administration of the PPP had on May 28 got a three-month budget passed by the House to be used by the new government until September 30. The PPP government had presented a budget of Rs1.144 trillion in the assembly on May 10.

Shah had said that approving the provincial budget of only the first three months would allow the upcoming provincial administration after the general elections to make desirable adjustments in the budget for the rest of the fiscal year in accordance with its own mandate to rule in the province.