Sindh Assembly. PHOTO: FILE
KARACHI: Despite the speaker Agha Siraj Durrani’s announcement and his meetings with the opposition and treasury members to maintain decorum in the house, the Sindh Assembly witnessed another fight in the house, where the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MPAs misbehaved with each other and used derogatory language.
The ruckus started in the house when PPP MPA Imdad Pitafi, in his pre-budget speech, called PTI’s Haleem Adil Shaikh a “land grabber”.
“PTI has given tickets to land grabbers like Haleem Adil Shaikh who earlier requested us to join the PPP,” he said. On his remarks, PTI MPAs protested and tore copies of the agenda.
“I have never ever approached the PPP leadership to join their party,” retorted Shaikh. “He is a liar. I curse him,” said Haleem Adil Shaikh, who is the parliamentary leader of his party in the Sindh Assembly.
Pitafi responded in kind. “You are a cheater. You have encroached upon land in Malir and other areas of Karachi,” he alleged. After several minutes of protests, the speaker reminded both the party’s members about their promises to avoid mudslinging in the house. “I expunge the non-parliamentary words you have used in this house.” Later, Shaikh and Pitfaif tendered apologies and the situation returned to normality.
Fists fly in Sindh Assembly session as PTI MPA takes a dig at Bilawal
Education dilemma
Earlier, PTI’s Rabia Azfar Nizami, who has worked for several years in the education sector, started her speech with a poem and said, “Every year the education budget is increasing, but the standard of education is deteriorating with each passing day”.
She added that around six million children were out of school in Sindh. Billons of rupees spent on education could not make a difference, she said, adding that the enrollment and literacy rate was decreasing and the education department had failed to control copy culture in the province.
“The provincial government is always talking about financial constraints. But significant funds are not required to bring reforms in examination boards where a commission could be formed to look into it,” she said, adding that zero per cent budget has been utilised in many projects.
Referring to the Sindh Education Foundation (SEF) and its budget, she said that the SEF had to enroll around 650,000 children in schools, but it could not meet the target. “This foundation has been operating for 25 years here. A similar foundation in Punjab has enrolled more than three million children, but here, we could only get 555,000 students registered in various schools of the province,” she said.
Embezzlement of funds
Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s Rana Ansar waved a copy of the budget expenditure book and said, “This is not just any book, but a haunting tale of massive bungling of funds.”
Quoting the funds of the transport department, she said that in last 11 years, not a single scheme of transport had been completed. “I need answers for the projects started in 2008, but have not been completed to date,” she said. She alleged that fake employments were made in transport department and millions of rupees had been embezzled, adding that various transport schemes in the name of Benazir Bhutto were mentioned in the budget books in previous years, which had now been removed. “Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Intercity Bus Service project is now missing from the budget books,” she said, adding that five transport ministers have served since 2008, but no tangible results have been seen.
Ansar also lashed out at the government for not initiating the Edhi Orange Line, Blue line and Red Line BRTS, besides the Lyari Engineering College, Benazir Bhutto Bin Qasim Trauma Center and a 50-bed hospital named after Benazir Bhutto in Keamari.
Pre-budget Sindh Assembly session turns into a brawl
PPP responds
Ghulam Qadir Chandio of PPP, responding to the opposition members’ speeches, said that the PPP was popular in Sindh because of its performance and everyone knew what it had delivered in the last 11 years. Criticising the PTI, he said, “Nothing will happen with dancing and bumbling attempts. They have no vision to create Naya Pakistan. If revolution had happened through dances, then monkeys would have achieved it.”
Arif Mustafa Jatoi of the Grand Democratic Alliance asked the PPP government to stop criticising the federal government for not releasing funds. “Do you know how much money is needed to run an F-16 and what is the price of the missile fired by Pakistan Air Force during the recent dogfight with India?” he questioned.
“It is high time to divert the resources for military and other necessary expenses,” he said, adding that the funds of other provincial governments had also been slashed, so Sindh must abide in the best interest of the country.
After the speeches from the treasury and opposition members, the Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani adjourned the session till today (Friday).
Published in The Express Tribune, April 26th, 2019.
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