KARACHI:
The MPAs, if they show up for Tuesday’s (today) Sindh Assembly session, are in for a treat.
According to an announcement made by the speaker of the assembly, Agha Siraj Durrani, they will continue their budget discussion in the new assembly building sitting on plush leather sofas. The speaker claimed that they had made special arrangements to wrap up the budget discussion during the assembly session, which will be held in the new building so they could finalise and pass the budget by Wednesday.
The new assembly building has the capacity to accommodate 316 MPAs, 200 guests and journalists in galleries located on the ground and first floors. Around Rs4.64 billion have been spent on the building which was built over a period of three and a half years.
Budget talks
In order to get done with the budget discussion by Tuesday (today), the speaker had decided to hold a longer session with an hour long lunch break in the middle.
The session already had low attendance but there was barely anyone present after 3pm. No members of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) were present for the second half. Only five Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) MPAs returned after lunch. Out of a total of 92, only 31 MPAs from the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) sat in the treasury benches. There were six MPAs from the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) and only one from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
Monday’s session started with a brief appearance by PML-N MPA and former Chief Minister Dr Ghulam Arbab Rahim. He was there for less than five minutes and was out the door before the MPAs could rope him into a discussion about the budget.
The MPAs deviated several times from discussing the budget as they discussed rigging in the elections, other charges of corruption and abuses of power. The MPAs from the opposition and treasury started shouting ‘thapa’ over and over and kept disrupting the session.
“The PPP has come into power again because of its performance in the last government,” said Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon while countering allegations made by the opposition. Memon faced a tough audience as members of the opposition kept taunting him and his party - the PPP. “You and your government hit the all time high in corruption,” said the MPAs. “You have mismanaged funds and auctioned off government jobs.” This prompted the minister to say: “The opposition criticises the government inside the assembly but outside you ask our ministers to get you contracts.”
The MPAs sitting in the opposition asked Memon to name names but Memon did not. They asked again but Memon declined to do so.
When Memon started to list initiatives taken by the provincial government, the opposition interrupted and said that the only initiative they took was rigging the elections.
The speaker of the assembly, Agha Siraj Durrani, was quite tired of reminding the MPAs to stop disrupting the session by interrupting whoever was speaking. He kept waving the rule book and requested the MPAs to follow what was decided up and hear out all speeches patiently.
On day six of the budget discussion, the opposition and treasury MPAs repeated themselves and blamed the federal government for not releasing funds on time and ignoring major cities, especially Sukkur. By extending the session, the speaker gave 20 MPAs the opportunity to speak but only three or four of them actually talked about the budget.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 24th, 2014.
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