Sindh Assembly passes Rs1.24t budget

Four cut motions by opposition MPAs voted down

KARACHI: Amid loud protests from the opposition, the Sindh Assembly passed the Rs1.24 trillion provincial budget for the upcoming fiscal year, along with supplementary grants of Rs16.64 billion for the outgoing year.

As Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah presented the supplementary budget for 2019-20, opposition leader Firdous Shamim Naqvi stood up in protest, asking why it was being approved.

Shah responded that the extra funds had been spent by the Governor House, the CM House, police, secretariat and other departments. “The opposition can move cut motions to reduce expenditure from the supplementary grants,” he added.

Unlike most years, when dozens such motions are submitted to cut funds from the annual and supplementary budgets, only four cut motions were moved by opposition lawmakers on Saturday, to reduce non-development expenditure in the supplementary grants. These were summarily rejected through the majority votes from the treasury benches. No cut motions were moved against the new annual budget.

Mocking the opposition, the CM commented, “I am thankful to the opposition for reposing their confidence in the 2020-21 budget, as they did not submit a single cut motion. Instead of participating in the budgetary process, they preferred to remind us of their dharna days, with hooliganism disturbing the house.”

As the annual and supplementary budgets were presented for voting, the opposition voiced their protests. Though the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan MPAs were not in session, choosing the register their protest through a sit-in outside the assembly, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Grand Democratic Alliance lawmakers held up placards and shouted slogans, demanding funds for Karachi.

Earlier, as some MPAs raised concerns about the purchase of luxury vehicles in next year’s budget despite the Covid-19 emergency, the CM said his government had banned such purchases during the pandemic, adding that any operational vehicle needed would require cabinet approval for its purchase.

Comparing Sindh’s expenditures on vehicles over the last four years with those of the other provinces and the Centre, Shah said his government had spent Rs7.2 billion on this while Punjab had spent Rs16.15 billion, Balochistan Rs7.8 billion, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Rs5.2 billion and the federal government Rs23 billion. “Despite this, we are criticised.”

He claimed the PTI government had filed the wrong figures in the Supreme Court, adding he would submit detailed expenditure lists for the purchase of vehicles for his own government and the others.

Developing Karachi

Turning to the opposition’s contention over Karachi’s development, the CM said the city had been allocated Rs26.8 billion in Annual Development Programme schemes, while there were also a number of foreign-funded projects for the metropolis. These include bus rapid transit lines, Karachi Urban Mobility project, water and sewerage upgrades, Karachi Neighborhood Improvement Project, Compatible Livable City of Karachi and others.

Apart from these, he said, there were a number of projects that were to be started in the upcoming fiscal year, such as the Rs27.5 billion Malir Expressway scheme, the Rs6.5 billion link road reconstruction project, the Rs12 billion Karachi urban road project, the Rs7 billion Hub canal rehabilitation and a Rs25 billion wastewater recycling project, among others. 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 28^th, 2020.