MQM rejects 'feudal-minded' Sindh budget, calls for shutter down strike tomorrow

Rabita Committee claims urban areas completely ignored in budget, says it offers no respite to poverty-stricken masses

KARACHI: Muttahida Qoumi Movement (MQM) has called for a shutter down strike on Sunday to register its protest against the Sindh budget, which they claimed was "based on discrimination".

In a statement issued on Saturday, Rabita Committee said they urged the traders and general public keep their businesses closed for a day to denounce the "anti-province budget" unveiled on Saturday, Express News reported.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, MQM parliamentarian Dr Farooq Sattar termed the budget 'feudal-minded' and 'anti-development'.

“Many of the schemes proposed by the MQM, including the water crises, were not accepted,” he claimed.

He maintained that developmental projects relating to flyovers, roads, and mass transits in the city were not even mentioned in the budget.

According to leader of the opposition in the assembly and another key figure of the party Khawaja Izhar-ul-Hasan, the financial allocations were based on 'hatred' and completely ignored the needs of the urban areas.

The party blamed Pakistan Peoples Party for 'ignoring the urban areas for long where people had been deprived of electricity, water and utilities."

It may be mentioned here that the party had also presented a shadow budget to suggest expenditure in the financial budget.

Earlier, while addressing a business meeting in Karachi yesterday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif  said that businesses and markets in Karachi are closed as strikes are called over minor issues.