MQM-P walks out of Sindh Assembly after request denied for more time for presenting budgetary proposals

The opposition legislators of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) on Monday staged a walkout from the Sindh Assembly after they were denied extra time in the House to put forth their proposals for the forthcoming budget of the province for the financial year 2021-22.

The Sindh Assembly continued its discussion on the upcoming provincial budget for the fourth day. Speaker Agha Siraj Khan Durrani did not accept the request of the MQM-P for granting more than usual time to present their suggestions related to the forthcoming budget.

The denial of their request compelled the MQM-P MPAs to stage a walkout from the house. The MQM-P legislators, however, came back after sometime to attend the remaining part of the session.

The leader of the opposition in the House, Haleem Adil Sheikh, who belongs to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), also suggested extension of the ongoing budgetary discussion by one more day.

He vociferously protested as he was denied the opportunity to present his resolution on the drive being conducted in rural parts of District Malir to evict area people from their native villages where they have been living for past several decades.

The speaker ruled that no resolution could be presented in the House when the pre-budgetary debate was in progress. Taking part in the discussion, MQM-P lawmaker Jawed Hanif said the federal government should release grant for development of the province.

He alleged that even illiterate persons had been hired as teachers for government-run schools in the past recruitment drives in the province. He further alleged that the deputy commissioners posted in Karachi were not the natives of the city and they were exploiting the lockdown orders to mint money.

Hanif said the government-run hospitals in the province did not have medicines for the patients. He said the attendants of patients were seen sleeping outside Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre in Karachi as there was no shelter for them.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MPA Riaz Shah Sheerazi said areas of district Thatta where wind power plants had been installed should be supplied free of charge electricity. Female PPP legislator Heer Soho said the federal government of the PTI was ineligible as that was why ventilators were not available to the coronavirus patients in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

She added that no progress had been made for implementation of the special development packages announced by the present federal government for Sindh. She stated that mere announcements on the part of the federal government were not enough.

The PPP MPA was of the view that the federal government should show seriousness in vaccinating the population against the novel coronavirus instead of merely relying on vaccines donated by other countries and global relief agencies. She asked the federal government to wake up to the alarming situation of the Covid-19 pandemic keeping in view the massive devastation in India caused by the virus.