Feeling left out: Why does every PM, president ignore Karachi, asks MPA

Lahore, they claim, gets the right allocations and development funds while Karachi gets nothing.


Hafeez Tunio June 21, 2014
The Sindh lawmakers feel the Centre has started neglecting them by giving less budgetary allocations to the province as compared to Punjab. PHOTO: ONLINE

KARACHI:


Members of the Sindh Assembly are upset with the Centre.


They feel that Karachi, the city of lights, is always treated as a step-child when compared to Lahore. They claim that Lahore gets the right allocations, the right development funds and schemes while Karachi is left with hand-me-downs.

"Every prime minister, every president the country has had gives special packages to Lahore and neglects Karachi," said Muttahida Qaumi Movement's deputy parliamentary leader Khwaja Izharul Hassan while discussing the budget at the Sindh Assembly on Friday. "This is unfair. Karachi is the economical hub of the country."



According to Hassan, not only had the federal government 'blessed' Lahore with funds, but the government of Punjab had earmarked 40% of its provincial development budget for the city. Karachi, he said, is nowhere on the government's priority list.

"The people of Karachi are facing a water shortage. The Sindh government has allocated Rs1 billion for K-V project, a drinking water project which will take years to complete," he said, adding that Rs42 billion were allocated for Karachi out of which more than Rs20 billion will be spent on renovating and reconstructing government buildings.

In case of a fire in the city, Hassain claimed that the residents would be helpless as more than 50% of fire stations in the city were not functional. He added that most departments which have supposed to deal with disasters were not properly equipped or did not have enough resources.

Hussain then directed the House's attention to the local government elections and said that no money had been allocated for it. He added that the government had promised to hold LG elections this year but since they had not kept any funds for it the government was clearly not serious about it.

Cops with hepatitis

Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) MPA Nand Kumar brought up the issue of policemen with hepatitis. "Why are sick people suffering from a deadly disease working in the police department?" he asked. "Can these patients perform well or control criminal or militant activities in the province?" He added that he had medical reports of many policemen which confirmed that they were hepatitis patients.

Graveyards for Hindus

Discussing the budget for minorities, Kumar said that the Sindh government had allocated funds for renovating the temples, but what about graveyards for the Hindu scheduled caste. He added that the Hindus did not have a separate graveyard and this created a problem. The government, he said, should think about this.

The MPA added that forced conversions and kidnapping for ransom cases had made their lives miserable and the government had failed to do anything to help.

A messy session

Friday's assembly session had many messy moments as MPAs from the treasury and opposition benches kept getting at each others' throats by passing rude comments about their leaders.

The deputy speaker of the House, Shehla Raza, said something about Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairperson Imran Khan which led MPAs of his party to create a lot of hue and cry.

The speaker of the assembly had to step in and ask both parties to calm down.

Then, the fisheries minister, Jam Khan Shoro accused the Shirazis of Thatta of occupying acres of forest land. The Shirazis, who are now affiliated with the PML-N objected to these allegations made against them. The speaker, again, asked the men on both sides to take a deep breath and sit down. He adjourned the session and said they would continue with assembly matters on Monday.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 21st, 2014.

COMMENTS (7)

Aftab Tunio | 9 years ago | Reply

It is fault of government even it is provisional or Federal government and also fault of our political parties even it is MQM, PML-N PPP, which has selected sick MPAs AND MNAs, allocated fund for development project is not issue but issue is to run those project without any corruption, which is not looking possible to us without changing in ourself. We need to be an educator to give vote against those MPA or MNA which is not working in their area, Our vote is not for any political party but it is for that people who can work for their area, In this concept we will get change automatically within 20 years The MPA and MNA will working in fear of he will not get any vote if he will not work for people and he will lost his/her seat, OUR VOTE SHOULD BE AGAINST OF THAT WHICH IS NOT WORKING OR CORRUPT

ahmed ali | 9 years ago | Reply

karachi should be made a separate province

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