Informal poll in PA rejects demand to divide Sindh

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah conducted an informal poll during the provincial assembly’s session on Tuesday to reject the demand of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) to create a new province after carving out the urban areas from the province.

The chief executive did the informal vote count on the issue of new province during the wee hours of Tuesday, as the PA had remained in session for 10 hours straight, starting at 2:10pm on Monday, to conclude the pre-budget discussion on the sixth day.

Shah conducted the informal vote count at the conclusion of his speech to wind up the pre-budget discussion in the House. At the conclusion of his speech, he asked the lawmakers sitting in the PA at that time to stand up from their seats if they were against the call to divide Sindh to create a new province.

The legislators present in the House — those on the treasury benches belonging to the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), those on the opposition benches belonging to the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) and some of the main opposition party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) — stood up to show support to the call of the CM to oppose the move to divide the province.

The lawmakers of the MQM-P remained seated in the PA to oppose the informal vote count call of the chief executive, who thanked the opposition lawmakers for standing up to support his call.

Discussion

Earlier, taking part in the pre-budget discussion in the House, the lawmakers belonging to the MQM-P, namely Khawaja Izharul Hassan and Kanwar Naveed Jameel, reiterated their party’s demand to create a new province in Sindh, comprising of its urban areas, as a way to resolve the grievances and problems of its dwellers caused due to alleged bad governance during the PPP’s rule in the province during the past 11 years.

Before that, CM Shah had said that his government in the province fully believed in the concept of doing the best of public service because of which it had been continuing with its service to the masses irrespective of all the propaganda against the provincial administration.

He said that the province had the right to collect whatever taxes were being collected by the federal government. He also said that it was his desire that other cities of Sindh, such as Larkana, Dadu and Sehwan, were developed to such an extent that they could generate revenue resources for the entire country.

Shah stressed that his government had the capacity to spend the budget, but at the moment its exchequer was empty. He said his government had built the Nooriabad power plant, as a transmission line was later constructed to evacuate its electricity to the system of K-Electric.

“We are being penalised for generating electricity and supplying it to K-Electric. I have been facing the blame as for what reason I built this transmission line.”

Private bills

Later on Tuesday, on the private members’ day of the PA, two private bills were introduced in the House by the opposition’s female legislators.

These bills were the Sindh Water Management (Amendment) Bill 2018, introduced by MPA Rana Ansar of the MQM-P, and the Control of Narcotic Substances (Sindh Amendment) Bill 2018, introduced by MPA Rabia Azfar Nizami of the PTI.

Earlier, during the question hour of the session, Irrigation Minister Nasir Hussain Shah informed the House that different projects were being implemented to do lining of canals and their branches in the province for the maximum benefit of the agriculture sector.

He informed the PA that during the financial year 2016-17, the provincial government had given a grant of Rs124 billion for reducing the adverse effects of salinity on the farmlands of Sindh.

In the financial year 2017-18 the budgetary grant for the same purpose was Rs154 billion, while in the current financial year 2018-19 the grant for the same cause was Rs54 billion. The PA will reconvene at 10am on Thursday (tomorrow).