The Balochistan Assembly unanimously approved the Rs16.3 billion supplementary budget for the outgoing financial year in just 25 minutes.
The short session included a recitation from the Holy Quran and a prayer for Baloch intellectual Professor Saba Dashtiari, who was gunned down in broad daylight on June 1 in Quetta.
Finance Minister Mir Asim Kurd tabled the supplementary budget for fiscal year 2011, which is the post-hoc authorisation of expenditure overruns by the government.
He was interrupted by Syed Ehsan Shah and Jaffar Mandokhel of the Pakistan Muslim League Quaid who asked for permission to speak about the 2012 budget.
However, Speaker Aslam Bhootani said that since the supplementary budget had been presented, it would have to be dealt with before debate on the 2012 budget could begin.
This led to chaos on the assembly floor with several house members simultaneously requesting permission to speak.
Yet despite the confusion, the house was able to wrap up the debate in less than 25 minutes with very little debate since most assembly members seemed far more interested in talking about the 2012 budget than looking at the fact that the Balochistan government had overspent its budget allocations by well over 12%.
Mandokhel demanded details about the 2011 development budget.
“More than Rs 14 billion were allocated for development expenditures but details have not been provided to lawmakers about these huge allocations. No one knows where this money was spent and why details are being concealed from MPAs.
If the defence budget can be made public, then why not Balochistan’s development expenditures?”
Published in The Express Tribune, June 25th, 2011.
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