Sindh budget debate sees open hostility between treasury and opposition

As the Sindh Assembly convened on Thursday for the fourth consecutive day to continue the general discussion on the provincial government’s budget for the remaining nine months of the current financial year, the House witnessed open hostility between the treasury and opposition benches.

The Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Suhail Siyal claimed that during the previous governments, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) had ruined the local government system in Sindh and caused widespread violence and bloodshed in the province.

Siyal held the MQM responsible for the May 12, 2007, riots, saying that the party had spread hatred among the people of Sindh on the basis of ethnicity. He said now that peace has been restored owing to the efforts of the Sindh administration and the country’s armed forces, there are no more gunny bags with dead bodies to be found.

The MQM’s Muhammad Hussain said the PPP ruled in the province with policies based on ethnic prejudice, adding that urban settlements of Urdu-speaking communities have been suffering during the party’s regime. Hussain said Karachi has been generating up to 70 per cent of the country’s revenue and a whopping 95 per cent of Sindh’s fiscal resources.

He said that a few billion rupees are spent on the city’s development while the remainder of the massive budget allocation is reserved for the rest of Sindh, adding that this would no more be acceptable to them.

The MQM lawmaker said Karachi has been the economic engine of the entire country, but even then its residents suffer due to shortage of potable water, unavailability of transparent public system, lack of local government system and biased conduct of the Sindh Public Service Commission regarding government job vacancies.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Khurrum Sher Zaman said the state of education, health, public transparency, municipal services, sanitation and water supply services in the province have been in disarray.

Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho conceded that irregularities have occurred in the past in the procurement and provision of medicines by the government for treating hepatitis, while spurious medicines and quacks have become rampant. She said the public hospital in Larkana lacks regular electric supply because of which precious surgical equipment are often rendered out-of-order.

Token walkouts

The opposition legislators belonging to the PTI, the MQM and the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) walked out of the proceedings of the House on three different occasions.

Their first walkout was to protest the chair allowing the PPP’s Shehla Raza an unusually long time, over an hour, to deliver her speech in the provincial assembly. The second token walkout happened after the PPP’s Marvi Rashdi claimed that there used to be only one anti-Sindh party in the PA but now numerous anti-people forces are present in the House.

The PPP’s Taimur Talpur caused the most explosive protest when he practically admitted that his party was involved in horse-trading in this year’s Senate elections. “The member who sold his vote to the PPP in the Senate polls is still sitting in this House,” said Talpur. Though his admission caused a furore, he continued speaking.

Regarding the GDA’s Nusrat Seher Abbasi, he said her husband was employed by the PPP government. Talpur advised Nusrat to refrain from “sycophancy”, assuring her that she would again get her party’s ticket to become an MPA on a reserved seat.

Talking to the media later, opposition legislators said they would present a video clip of Talpur’s speech to the Election Commission of Pakistan because it contained a “confessional statement” about the PPP buying votes in the Senate elections. Talpur claimed that he had mentioned the lawmaker who had only approached his party to sell his vote.