A committee should keep a check on how the budget is being spent, says MQM MPA

Education minister does not know how the video popped up on his iPad.

KARACHI:

A monitoring committee should be formed to keep a check on the budget and see how far the proposals are being implemented, said Muttahida Qaumi Movement parliamentary leader Sardar Ahmed.

During the budget discussions in the Sindh Assembly session on Thursday, Ahmed appreciated the proposals for the upcoming year but felt that bureaucracy can help improve the system. He suggested that members of the standing committees of Sindh Assembly be included in the evaluation committee that can meet every three months and review the budget’s utilisation.

Ahmed pointed out that out of the revised Annual Development Programme of Rs77 billion last year only Rs34 billion was spent. Funds are also not released on time which often leads to misappropriation, he said.

He felt that federal receipts had always created problems. “Last year, we estimated Rs79 billion from provincial receipts but received only Rs43 billion. We estimated capital receipts of Rs27 billion but received only Rs5 billion,” he said.

The MQM leader opposed Sindh Bank and demanded the government convert it into a microfinance one. There was no need to establish commercial banks given the track record of the Khyber and Punjab banks, which failed to achieve their objectives, he said. “We should target the lower class in order to give them incentives. I suggest that the government review its decision,” he added.

He asked the government to allocate special packages for the new Zulfikarabad city in Thatta district. “It would be an ‘elite’ city and influential people have started buying land there,” he said.

Opposition leader Jam Madad Ali appreciated the healthy criticism of the budget by members of the ruling party. They had followed the reconciliation policy but had not achieved any fruitful result, he said.

Ali felt that there are no incentives for the poor, who only want the prices of flour, sugar, ghee, rice, etc, to go down. During the first cabinet meeting, the government decided to discourage the practice of re-employment, deputation and own pay scale but not tangible results have come out. Instead, the government is passing “black laws” to adjust its own people in different departments, he said. “You claimed to have provided jobs to thousands of people but not a single job has been given to the minority and handicapped people.”

The chief minister said that the opposition’s criticism was out of context. The government had taken all efforts to provide jobs and other incentives to poor people, he said.

‘I want an iPad’

As he concluded his budget speech, Ali requested Senior Education Minister Pir Mazharul Haq to give him an iPad. “I want to use the iPad for my official work and will not watch movies,” Ali assured the speaker. Haq was caught watching dances on his iPad during a session last week.

The minister replied that he keeps an iPad during the session to access rules and that he was unaware that the finance minister had installed YouTube on it. “Would you believe that I was not watching any movie or dance party? I don’t know how the picture suddenly came on the screen,” he tried to clarify.

Criticising Pakistan Muslim League - Functional MPA Marvi Rashdi for raising the iPad issue, he said that, “if these women are so innocent that they have never even seen a mujra or a dance party, how did they know what I was watching?”

Female members of the opposition objected to his statement but the speaker did not allow them to talk further.

Judicial commission’s report

Sindh Finance Minister Murad Ali Shah informed the house that the judicial commission had suggested the government take action against irrigation officials involved in negligence during the floods. “I personally know that these officials were present 24 hours on the embankments and action against them is not the right decision,” he said.

The debate on the budget, which started on June 13, concluded at the end of Thursday’s session.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 24^th, 2011.