Looking inwards: G-B lawmaker apologises for ineffective stint

Legislators claim they have been deprived of development funds.

GILGIT:

For Rehmat Khaliq of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Thursday’s Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) Assembly session was one of introspection.

“Let me acknowledge my failure to deliver and my failure to keep the promises I made to my people,” Khaliq said on the floor of the house as the incumbent legislature passed its fifth and final annual budget worth over Rs27 billion with a majority. Lawmaker Khaliq is a senior member of the JUI-F which is a coalition partner of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in G-B.



“I have failed my people and I apologise for that,” he said during the assembly session chaired by Speaker Wazir Baig. Khaliq’s regret stems from the sparse development work carried out in the region by G-B’s lawmakers.

Nationalist leader, Nawaz Naji, pointed out they never received the annual development budget for 2012 and 2013. “I am surprised over the silence of the lawmakers. Why don’t they speak out against this injustice?”

Naji said it was not possible for him to ask people from his constituency to vote for him as he failed to get a single development project completed in the area.

Upon this, Pakistan Mulsim League-Quaid’s (PML-Q) Amina Ansari questioned whether the chief minister or the chief secretary was responsible for the missing development funds.

Similar reservations were voiced by Abdul Hameed who sought a reply from the minister concerned.

Minister for Planning Raja Azam acknowledged there were problems with the budget of 2013, but said the outstanding funds for the members would be released as early as possible.

Ayub Shah from Ghizer Valley, on the other hand, complained the budget document had been delivered really late, adding he did not get enough time to study it.

Terming the budget insufficient, he said the revenue generated from his region by the federal governments is more than Rs35 billion, but what it got back as the development budget was less than Rs10 billion.

“This is sheer injustice and looks more like we were handed charity.”

Shah said cellular service providers alone collect more than Rs6.6 million per day in taxes from the region but the revenue is not utilised in the area. The session was later adjourned for an indefinite period.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 27^th, 2014.