Three months have passed but the Sindh government has not submitted its quarterly budget report, claimed Sindh Assembly opposition leader Firdous Shamim Naqvi on Wednesday.
Naqvi was addressing the media, flanked by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MPAs Shehzad Qureshi, Arsalan Taj, Sidra Imran, Bilal Ghaffar and others.
“The first quarter of the fiscal year ended in September, and now November is here but thus far there has been no report on the first quarter, and the provincial government has not disclosed how much money has been spent on which project,” claimed Naqvi.
According to him, the provincial government did not present a single quarterly budget report in the assembly last year. Moreover, said Naqvi, the Sindh government first refused to give the public accounts committee and then was not submitting budget progress reports. “We need to know what the Sindh government had promised in the budget and how much of the money allocated for the projects has been spent.”
Censuring the Pakistan Peoples Party for failing to fix the system despite its long reign in Sindh, Naqvi said that the announcement of a joint relief package worth Rs1.1 trillion - the Karachi Transformation Plan - was made on September 5 and Federal Planning Minister Asad Umar had been giving reports on the Centre’s work.
He went on to praise the PTI-led federal government’s response to the pandemic. “We are aware that people are worried about inflation but at the moment there are positive results for the economy’s recovery,” maintained the PTI leader, claiming that the industrial sector was headed towards success. “The dollar is depreciating against the rupee and exports are increasing.”
Naqvi also claimed that there were abundant flour and sugar reserves but it was the provincial government’s responsibility to control prices.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 12th, 2020.
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