Sindh Assembly session: Comments about Zardari clan upsets PPP
PML-F lawmaker asks why Rs800 million have been allocated for an eight kilometre road in Khairpur.
PPP MPA Sharmila Farooqui gestures towards the PTI MPA during the assembly session on Thursday over remarks by the latter. PHOTO: ONLINE
KARACHI:
On a recent visit to Benazirabad, Paktistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Seema Zia realised that every bridge, flyover, school and university was named after former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s children - Bilawal, Bakhtawar and Asefa.
She thought it was odd that none of the buildings, roads or monuments were named after people in government or those who had done something for the people of Sindh.
So when she showed up at Thursday’s Sindh Assembly session she took the matter up with the treasury and speaker of the assembly. “Is it not possible for the Sindh government to build monuments named after Qaim Ali Shah, Nisar Khuhro, Sharjeel Memon or Sikandar Mandhro?” she asked. “These people have also served the people of Sindh.”
As soon as the words left her mouth, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MPAs got emotional and started shouting that they would not tolerate anyone saying anything against their leaders.
As speaker of the House, Agha Siraj Durrani, tried to calm them down but many women of the treasury benches demanded that Zia should apolgise for her statement.
Despite the angry reaction from PPP MPAs, the PTI MPA continued with her post-budget critique which looked at more than a dozen health and education projects which never got anywhere despite having government resources at their disposal.
On the fourth day of the post-budget discussion, Zia was not the only one criticising the government on its failure to meet the development targets. Other lawmakers, including PPP’s Murad Ali Shah and Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) also had complaints.
“Nearly Rs800 million have been allocated for an eight-kilometre road in Khairpur which is the chief minister’s hometown,” said PML-F’s Imtiaz Shaikh while referring to the 2014-15 budget booklet. “That means around Rs100 million is being used per kilometer. I want to know what kind of material you are going to use for this scheme.”
While talking about the Waseela-e-Haq programme, Shaikh said that it was supposed to give small loans to women and while Rs30 million had been allocated for the programme it hadn’t even started as yet. He added that around Rs2 billion had been allocate for the Benazir Income Support Programme in Sindh, but no funds had been released so far. Shaikh also mentioned Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants, a project to make saline water drinkable. He claimed that while Rs35 billion had been utilised for the project, 90% of the RO plants were non-functional.
Road to nowhere
PPP lawmaker Murad Ali Shah was also upset with the government. Shah, who is from Naushehro Feroze, said that no road in his district was motorable. He claimed that the government had allocated money for roads in the budget, but he did not know where the money went.
Shah is famous for wearing flamboyant suits and sits in the second last row in the assembly’s treasury benches and has served as food minister more than three times in the provincial cabinet.
“This all is being done due to a lack of accountability,” he said, adding that schools in his district had been converted into marriage halls and autaqs. “Government ambulances are being used by private transporter as buses while medicines which should be sold at hospitals are being sold in the black market. What are we doing? Who will come here to serve the people of our province?”
Take your health seriously
PTI’s Samar Ali Khan also gave his feedback on the budget. He said that no serious efforts were taken to improve the education or health sector. “More than 53% of children in Sindh are suffering from malnutrition while 34% of people in Jacobabad have hepatitis,” he said, adding that while the sector has had good allocation, the people have not gotten any relief.
While talking about education, the lawmaker said that the literacy rate in Sri Lanka was 92%, 74% in India and 57% in Bangladesh. Pakistan, he said, had a 55% literacy rate and given the breakdown - Sindh has a literacy rate of only 37% which is very alarming.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 20th, 2014.
On a recent visit to Benazirabad, Paktistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Seema Zia realised that every bridge, flyover, school and university was named after former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s children - Bilawal, Bakhtawar and Asefa.
She thought it was odd that none of the buildings, roads or monuments were named after people in government or those who had done something for the people of Sindh.
So when she showed up at Thursday’s Sindh Assembly session she took the matter up with the treasury and speaker of the assembly. “Is it not possible for the Sindh government to build monuments named after Qaim Ali Shah, Nisar Khuhro, Sharjeel Memon or Sikandar Mandhro?” she asked. “These people have also served the people of Sindh.”
As soon as the words left her mouth, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MPAs got emotional and started shouting that they would not tolerate anyone saying anything against their leaders.
As speaker of the House, Agha Siraj Durrani, tried to calm them down but many women of the treasury benches demanded that Zia should apolgise for her statement.
Despite the angry reaction from PPP MPAs, the PTI MPA continued with her post-budget critique which looked at more than a dozen health and education projects which never got anywhere despite having government resources at their disposal.
On the fourth day of the post-budget discussion, Zia was not the only one criticising the government on its failure to meet the development targets. Other lawmakers, including PPP’s Murad Ali Shah and Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) also had complaints.
“Nearly Rs800 million have been allocated for an eight-kilometre road in Khairpur which is the chief minister’s hometown,” said PML-F’s Imtiaz Shaikh while referring to the 2014-15 budget booklet. “That means around Rs100 million is being used per kilometer. I want to know what kind of material you are going to use for this scheme.”
While talking about the Waseela-e-Haq programme, Shaikh said that it was supposed to give small loans to women and while Rs30 million had been allocated for the programme it hadn’t even started as yet. He added that around Rs2 billion had been allocate for the Benazir Income Support Programme in Sindh, but no funds had been released so far. Shaikh also mentioned Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants, a project to make saline water drinkable. He claimed that while Rs35 billion had been utilised for the project, 90% of the RO plants were non-functional.
Road to nowhere
PPP lawmaker Murad Ali Shah was also upset with the government. Shah, who is from Naushehro Feroze, said that no road in his district was motorable. He claimed that the government had allocated money for roads in the budget, but he did not know where the money went.
Shah is famous for wearing flamboyant suits and sits in the second last row in the assembly’s treasury benches and has served as food minister more than three times in the provincial cabinet.
“This all is being done due to a lack of accountability,” he said, adding that schools in his district had been converted into marriage halls and autaqs. “Government ambulances are being used by private transporter as buses while medicines which should be sold at hospitals are being sold in the black market. What are we doing? Who will come here to serve the people of our province?”
Take your health seriously
PTI’s Samar Ali Khan also gave his feedback on the budget. He said that no serious efforts were taken to improve the education or health sector. “More than 53% of children in Sindh are suffering from malnutrition while 34% of people in Jacobabad have hepatitis,” he said, adding that while the sector has had good allocation, the people have not gotten any relief.
While talking about education, the lawmaker said that the literacy rate in Sri Lanka was 92%, 74% in India and 57% in Bangladesh. Pakistan, he said, had a 55% literacy rate and given the breakdown - Sindh has a literacy rate of only 37% which is very alarming.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 20th, 2014.