In session: ‘Why is 95% of the budget being spent on 8 depts including health, education?’

They claimed there was a need to form a committee to keep an eye on development schemes.

KARACHI:

Members of the Sindh Assembly sitting on the opposition and treasury benches spent a busy day discussing the budget.

The one question on everyone's minds was why 95% of the revenue budget was being spent on eight departments including education, health, finance, irrigation and local government. The others, they said, were being ignored.

The MPAs claimed that there was a need to form a committee to oversee the development performance.

"Even after showing an expenditure of more than a billion rupees in the education and health departments, many schools and basic health centres remain closed," said Pakistan Peoples Party MPA Khursheed Junejo.

After the 18th Amendment, it has become mandatory to review how much and how the budget has been used in a quarter. However, instead of three months, this was being done after nearly 10 months.

While the attendance at the assembly was low, around 15 MPAs from the PPP, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Pakistan Muslim League-Functional(PML-F) took part in the budget debate on Wednesday. It was decided that they would continue to talk about it till Monday.

MQM's MPA Muhammad Hussain criticised officials from the planning and development department, especially their monitoring cell, for not working properly. "Out of Rs165 billion set aside for the provincial development budget, Rs78.95 billion has been released," he said. "The monitoring department of the planning and development gets 1% on the utilisation of the funds. But it has failed to deliver. "He added that while there is a Chief Minister (CM) inspection team, the CM has been engaged in a number of other issues and had no time to look into it.

PML-F MPA Mahtab Akbar Rashdi presented facts and figures about ongoing and new schemes and said that billions of rupees had been released but utilisation of the funds have created questions in elementary, college and higher education schemes. Quoting an example she said, "Around Rs102 million was allocated for teachers’ capacity building in 2013 to 2014 and Rs25 million has been released, but the government has spent only Rs7.5 million." She added that many schemes started about eight to 10 years ago and are still being worked on. Ghulam Qadir Chandio of the PPP said that even though 10 months had passed, many development schemes had not been initiated in the education or health sectors. He added that they should be included in the upcoming budget.

Waqar Hussain Shah of the MQM said that a large amount was allocated for an air strip in Tharparkar, but 10 months had passed and there was no expenditure to show.

PPP's Dr Sikandar Shoro diverted the attention of the house towards the provincial government's share in the federal budget and said, "Sindh has got Rs45 billion less than its due share." He added that this would ultimately affect the development planning.

He suggested that all standing committees should prepare the budget of their departments and elected members of the concerned areas must be consulted before launching the development schemes.

PAC chairman

After waiting for 11 months the assembly finally elected Saleem Raza Jalbani as the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) — a provincial watchdog that keeps an eye on government accounts.

PPP's Sardar Shah, Khairunisa Mughul, Pesul Mal, Lal Chand Urkani, Pakistan Muslim League-Functional's Nand Kumar, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's Sorath Thebo will be part of the committee.

Syed Awais Shah was appointed as the chairman of the home department's standing committee while MQM's Ashfaq Mangi was made chairman of sport and youth affairs.

The session was adjourned till Friday.

No paan, no drinks and certainly no chewing gum

As an intense discussion about the budget was going on, PPP’s Dr Sohrab Sarki interrupted and diverted the House’s attention towards Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MPA Khurram Sher Zaman.

Sarki asked the deputy speaker to tell the MPAs to follow and respect the rules of the House and this included wearing formal clothes.

Zaman, had come to the assembly wearing denim jeans and was chewing bubble gum. “No one can eat inside the assembly,” he said. “This is not a PTI jalsa. Madam speaker please ask members to follow the rules.”

As Zaman stood up to defend himself, the deputy speaker intervened and said that some members bring bottled water inside the assembly and this was not allowed. Shehla Raza requested the MPA to not name any party or affiliations while talking on the issue. Senior Minister Nisar Khuhro added that some women brought betel nuts inside the assembly and then shared it with others. This, he said, should also be banned.

This led to further complaints from MPAs.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 1^st, 2014.