Opposition’s proposals to be incorporated in budget

Provincial assembly passes resolution as CM winds up pre-budget debate

KARACHI:

The Sindh Assembly has for the first time adopted a resolution to consider the recommendations of the opposition lawmakers in the upcoming budget for the financial year 2023-24.

The decision was made in the wake of repeated concerns expressed by opposition MPAs in the house that the Sindh government neither consults them nor incorporates their recommendations in every budget. The surprise came after the six-day-long pre-budget debate in the session that concluded with a speech by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, who also holds the portfolio of finance department.

“I have heard the speeches of all the members sitting on both sides of the aisles and request them to please write down your recommendations. We will incorporate your genuine proposals in the coming budget,” he announced while moving a resolution on the matter.

The MPAs belonging to the MQM-Pakistan and the GDA applauded the move in the absence of PTI lawmakers who had staged a walkout in protest against Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani for not allowing them to speak in the house.

“We all have already decided in the house that after the opposition leader’s speech, the chief minister will wind up the pre-budget debate. So, I can’t allow anyone to speak and create fuss here,” Speaker Durrani said while addressing the PTI MPAs who boycotted the session.

Soon after the PTI members exited the house, the speaker gave floor to the chief minister who amidst a thin attendance spoke for an hour.

He opened his speech with a stress on constitutional role of each pillar of the state and said the country would progress and flourish when the three pillars: legislature, executive, and judiciary, worked in their constitutional domain. “Interference in each other’s domain has not only affected the genuine uplift of the country but has also stemmed its roots,” he said.

In his speech, he also touched on a controversy surrounding the name of Ghambat Medical Institute and said that the provincial assembly, through legislation, had changed the institute’s name to Pir Abul Qadir Shah Jilani Institute of Medical Sciences but a court has undone it. “I have directed my legal team to prepare an appeal,” he said and added that the courts could not undo such legislation.

Pre-budget

Talking about the introduction of the pre-budget provision in the assembly rules, the CM said that its credit goes to the PPP.

He added that this provision was framed by a committee headed by the late Dr Sikandar Mandhro in 2013, otherwise nowhere in any provincial or national assembly of Pakistan such an exercise had been carried out. He said that the purpose of the pre-budget discussion was to incorporate the proposal of the assembly members.

“I am thankful to some assembly members that they have given some good proposals and raised issues of their respective constituencies,” he said and added that he would present a resolution to adopt their recommendations in the budget.

Law & order

Talking about the law and order situation, CM Shah said that some of the opposition lawmakers took up the issue of kidnapping for ransom by dacoits in the katcha area. He added that the katcha area started from the sea up to Kashmore at the border between Sindh, Balochistan, and Punjab where these bandits operate.

He has spoken to the chief ministers of Balochistan and Punjab to hold a meeting at the border to chalk out a strategy to launch a vigorous cleanup operation.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, March 18^th, 2023.