CM Kamal demands apology from opposition leaders

Says they violated sanctity of House by preventing lawmakers from announcing budget

QUETTA:

Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan has demanded an apology of the leaders of opposition parties, saying that they have disrespected the provincial assembly and violated its sanctity.

On June 19, the opposition lawmakers from the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, Balochistan National Party-Mengal and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party had locked the assembly gates to prevent the treasury members from announcing the budget. They had reservations over non-allocation of development funds for their respective constituencies in the budget.

The police had to break open the gate of the MPAs Hostel using an armoured vehicle to allow the treasury members to enter the building. The opposition parties had been camping outside the assembly building for the last few days in protest.

On Saturday, the Balochistan Assembly session started after a delay of one-and-a-half hours with Speaker Mir Abdul Quddus Bizenjo in the chair.

CM Kamal spoke about the performance of the government in the last three years and the plans laid out in the budget for the next financial year.

"The attack on the Supreme Court is still remembered today. Of course, what happened in the Balochistan Assembly will also be remembered and if the people involved in this attack are not investigated and action not taken, sabotage will become a tradition," he said.

The CM said that after violating the sanctity of the house, the opposition leaders had the audacity to raise questions as well as criticise the performance of the government.

"The development of Balochistan is only possible with an advanced level of political thinking. Today, every citizen of Balochistan demands employment, health, education, roads and basic resources,” Kamal said, adding that whenever the government starts working, the opposition raises reservations against the Public Sector Development Programme.

The CM said, “The opposition speaks in such a way that we think that it is our ally, but they want to waste time by keeping such tactics. If policy making, budgeting and development projects are also to be done by the opposition then what is the role of the government.”

He claimed that the incumbent Balochistan government has done in three years what the previous governments could not do in several years.

He said CPEC has brought a lot of development in Balochistan.

"All this has been started by the incumbent government. Gwadar is a collection of CPEC and not those who ruled for five years.

Ask them [previous governments] what they did for Gwadar. In just three years, we have launched drinking water, expressway, road construction and Hoshab-Awaran project," he said.

He said their allies were exercising their right to public representation in their districts and at divisional level. "We are not collecting money from the media but fulfilling the responsibility given to the people," Kamal said.

The CM said that cancer block is being set up in Sheikh Zayed Hospital while a Cardiac Hospital is being set up in Bolan Medical College.

New hospitals are being set up in Naseerabad, Taftan, Sohbatpur and Sorab and 150 laboratories were set up.