Parliamentary affairs minister spends day defending budget

PTI's Seema Zia was particularly upset about the furniture, especially since she hasn’t changed hers in over 10 years.

It seemed that everyone had a problem with the amounts allocated to health, education, law and order, etc

Thursday was a busy day for Dr Sikandar Mandhro. He spent most of the day standing and defending the budget allocations to members of the Sindh Assembly. His voice grew hoarse as he explained the breakup bit by bit to the MPAs sitting in the opposition benches.

He had to justify every paisa sent spent on every item for every department - this included the money kept aside to buy furniture for Chief Minister House.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Seema Zia was particularly upset about the furniture, especially since she hasn’t changed hers in over 10 years. She was very concerned about what sort of ‘vandals’ lived or hung around the chief minister’s house as the provincial government set aside more than an eight digit figure to buy the CM new furniture every year. Zia asked the minister to bring all of the furniture that needed repair or old things to the assembly and maybe, just maybe, someone would be interested in buying it.

Pakistan Muslim League-Functional’s Nusrat Sehar Abbasi was also upset. She kept asking Mandhro why a large chunk of money was being spent on schemes and development projects. She accused the provincial government of making similar allocations last year and not following through with any. In the end, Abbasi sighed and said that she would just have to wait another year to see what the Sindh government could have done and what they did not do.

The opposition didn’t really have a good day as the treasury - which is mostly PPP MPAs, got their way. Anything proposed by the members of the opposition was immediately vetoed by the treasury.

Many MPAs came prepared for a long and grueling budget session. They were armed with cellphones, iPads, the budget book and sheets of paper, which they whipped out when opposed.

Some of them kept hopping from the treasury to the opposition, praying that no one would reject their proposals and agree without creating much fuss.

No one was sure how long the session would take - some suspected it would go on till 8pm, while others hoped it would be over before lunch. PPP’s Sharjeel Memon could not sit still. He kept walking in and out of the assembly hall.

Everyone, it seemed, had a problem with the amounts allocated to health, education, law and order, development, sewage and the furniture at the chief minister’s house. But, no one could do anything about it.

After hours of nays and ayes, the budget was passed and the MPAs ran out as fast as could before someone from the opposition stood up and screamed ‘I OBJECT.’

Published in The Express Tribune, June 26^th, 2014.