Budget debate in PA remains inconclusive due to protest by opposition

The Sindh Assembly on Thursday witnessed a vociferous protest by the opposition leaving the House in complete chaos, owing to which the general discussion on the newly presented provincial budget could not be completed.

It was the sixth day of the general debate on the Sindh budget for the upcoming financial year 2021-22 but due to the vocal protest by the opposition, the discussion remained inconclusive.

The House witnessed pandemonium at the outset of the proceedings as the opposition legislators of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) stood from their seats and started agitation. The held placards inscribed with demands for the people of the urban areas of Sindh and also staged a sit-in on the floor.

The speaker had to twice adjourn proceedings of the House briefly due to the unruly scenes before he announced final adjournment of the session till 10am today (Friday) as he could not restore the order.

The leader of the opposition in the House, Haleem Adil Shaikh, who belongs to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), made efforts to pacify the protesting MQM-P legislators but to no avail. Meanwhile, legislators of the PTI also resorted to protest when a renegade lawmaker of the party, Shehryar Shar, was given the opportunity to speak on the new budget.

The PTI MPAs agitated in the House after the renegade lawmaker was allowed to sit on the treasury benches in the house. They raised slogans against the renegade legislators. In his speech, Shar severely criticised the federal government for curtailing gas and water supply to the residents of Sindh irrespective of their constitutional rights.

Opposition legislator of the Grand Democratic Alliance Nand Kumar Goklani demanded recruitment of specialist doctors at the government-run hospital of his hometown, Sanghar. He alleged that his hometown had been without water supply despite the fact that it was known for cotton production in the country.

PPP MPA Qasim Siraj Soomro praised the free-of-charge health care services being provided by the government-run hospitals of Sindh without any discrimination. The opposition parties have been severely criticising the Sindh government during the general debate on the proposed provincial budget.

A day earlier on Wednesday, the MQM-P demanded in the House that the government stop collecting taxes from the urban areas of the province and let the residents solve their basic civic issues on their own.

The demand was made by MQM-P parliamentary party leader Kanwar Naveed Jameel as he took part in the ongoing discussion on the budget. He lamented that after 13 years of the PPP’s rule in the province, Karachi was counted among the 10 worst cities of the world.

He said just one locality of Karachi, Liaquatabad, paid more taxes than the total taxes collected from the entire Lahore city but even then, the new Sindh government’s budget did not contain a single development scheme for Liaquatabad.

In the same sitting, PTI MPA Firdous Shamim Naqvi said the education sector had been in a shambles in Sindh and the infant mortality rate of the province was also the highest in the country. He alleged that the system of governance in Sindh was based on corruption causing widespread destruction in the province.