MQM lawmakers claim budget will further rural-urban divide

Karachi
As lawmakers from the treasury benches hailed the inclusion of new development projects in various districts of Sindh, opposition party Muttahida Qaumi Movement in the Sindh Assembly session on Friday voiced their strong objections to the annual budget unveiled on Saturday by the finance minister and claimed that it discriminated between rural and urban areas in the allocations of funds.
The session began at around 11am but was adjourned by Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani at around 2pm which gave opposition lawmakers further excuse to continue with their severe criticism on the government and claim indifference on their part for hearing their concerns.
The session kicked off with remarks of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) MPA Dr Sohrab Sarki who commended top provincial officials for presenting a peoples’-friendly budget despite the limited resources.
Another PPP MPA Mahesh Kumar Malani while addressing the house hailed the allocation of Rs49 billion for the development of Karachi.
He claimed the government had also done a tremendous job during the drought in Thar when it had ensured the provision of drinking water by installing RO plants in the desert area.
Another PPP MPA Shahnaz Begum termed the budget as ‘poor friendly’. She said her election into the assembly via the votes of the masses was ample proof that the people were happy with the government’s performance
Rehana Laghari appreciated that funds had been allocated for development in Sujawal. On the other hand, MQM lawmakers strongly criticised the budget and said allocations had not been made for urban areas and cities.
They claimed that the schemes included in last year’s annual development programme (ADP) were missing from the current budget and no new projects have been introduced in this year’s document.
They also lamented that their proposals had not been accommodated in the budget.
Muhammad Hussain of the MQM described the budget to be hostile towards the people living in urban areas and said it had given rise to rural-urban division in Sindh. He said the budget seemed to have been prepared by the bureaucracy and the pragmatic proposals given by the opposition were not included in it at all.
He said an allocation of only Rs4 billion had been made for new projects in Karachi while about 50 percent of the amount released during the outgoing fiscal year was not spent. He challenged the government’s claim that it had allocated Rs49 billion for development in Karachi and said the amount did not exceed Rs18 billion.
He claimed not a single scheme was approved for all of 51 MQM MPAs and development projects included in ADPs of Karachi, Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas had been dropped for the upcoming financial year.
He demanded to know under what prejudiced policy had the provincial government approved the ADPs and urged the authorities to be just and not take measures to divide Sindh.
He said urban areas too must be given their due share. He said the opposition had no objection to spending of funds in villages only if the government was fair in its attitude toward the urban centres as well.
Another MQM MPA Khalid Ahmed said Sindh was confronted with two challenges of corruption and bad governance.
He said it took two years only to change the carpet and furniture inside the Sindh Assembly building. He said the city of Karachi ranked 45 in the country in terms of education and not a single government school in the province was fully functional.
He said with the paltry amount allocated for Karachi, the mega projects being initiated by the government would take decades to complete.
He said the budget presented by the finance minister lacked vision and political wisdom. He said it was reflected in the allocation for Hyderabad, when the third largest city of the province was on number 14 in terms of the funds reserved for development.
Ahmed demanded that services and sales tax should be reduced to 10 percent and relief should also be provided on internet services.
However, responding to the opposition, PPP MPA Syed Nasir Hussain Shah said that considering the prevailing situation when there was severe dearth of funds from the federal government, the budget presented by the Sindh government was laudable.
He said though some improvements were required in the working of the government, the opposition mustn’t only criticise. It should also appreciate the good work of the government.
Also speaking during the session, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf lawmaker Syed Hafeezuddin lauded the performance of Sindh Revenue Board in collection of taxes.
However, he then went on to say that the performance of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board and the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation was extremely bad. He said the decision to privatise the K-Electric had proven to be a disadvantageous one.
Putting in the party’s two bits in the current political fray over the budget, he said if PTI MPAs were not given funds to implement development projects in their areas then they too would stage a sit-in.
He demanded the establishment of a provincial finance commission and the elimination of ‘sifarish culture’ from the Sindh Police.
After the session was adjourned by the Speaker at about 2pm, MQM MPAs held a press conference outside the Sindh Assembly building and termed the move to be unjustified and unwarranted.
They said that the speaker should have given more time to MQM lawmakers to raise their concerns. They said the attitude of the speaker reflected the government’s lack of interest in development of the province.
They warned to continue with the protest till the disparity between rural and urban areas were put to an end and their proposals were not included in the budget.