The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly was told on Tuesday that the provincial government was considering shifting Dr Shakeel Afridi from Central Jail Peshawar. Responding to a point of order of PML-Q MPA Nighat Orakzai, Senior Minister Bashir Bilour said that the government might shift Dr Afridi to Balahisar Fort. He said that strict measures had been taken to ensure security of Dr Afridi.
In her point of order, Nighat Orakzai had stated that the presence of Dr Shakeel Afridi in Peshawar prison had increased the fears of occurrence of Bannu Jail break like incident. She said that Peshawar Jail was situated in the residential area and people were fearful of any eventuality. Later, the house resumed debate on budget 2012-13 and a total of nine legislators from both treasury and opposition benches took part in the discussion.
In the absence of both Speaker Karamatullah Khan and Deputy Speaker Khushdil Khan, a member of the panel of chairmen, Saqibullah Khan Chamkani presided over the proceedings of the house. After disposing of the point of order of Ms Orakzai, the chair invited the parliamentary leader of PPP-Sherpao, Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao, to initiate debate on the budget.
In his speech, Sikandar Hayat Sherpao said that budget used to be the reflection of the vision of the government and contained its polices and priorities for next financial year. He said that very few governments had got the opportunity to complete their constitutional period. "Today the present government is celebrating that it has presented its 5th annual budget. However, it should also ponder over it weather the government came up to the expectations of the people," he added
He said that they resort to constructive criticism, which was meant for reforms. But like previous four budgets, the fifth budget of the present government is also full of mistakes and also a deficit one, he maintained. Sherpao said that besides presenting the budget 2012-13, the finance minister had also presented a supplementary budget of more than Rs 29 billion for the outgoing year. He said that like previous year this budget also does not reflect actual figures.
The 20 percent increase in the salaries of the government employees, he said, is not reflecting in the provision of funds, which shows that another supplementary budget will be presented next year. He said that the collection of GST on services has been devolved to the provinces and last year the government collected Rs 8 billion against the target of Rs 10 billion. For next financial year, he said, the provincial government had set a target of Rs 9 billion and asked the government for adopting its own procedure for the collection.
Sikandar Hayat Sherpao said that though dispute between on net hydel profit from 1991 to 2004 had been resolved under the decision of Arbitration Tribunal, but the amount of the net profit has not yet been resolved. He was of the view that till the resolution of the matter, the province would remain deprived of its right. He said that federal bureaucracy has once again accelerated their conspiracies. He said that despite the directives of the tribunal that the technical committee will resolve the issue as soon as possible, it still remained resolved.
Hafiz Akhtar Ali, deputy parliamentary leader of JUI-F, appreciated the initiatives like Bacha Khan Khpal Rozgar Scheme, Hunarmand Rozgar Scheme and education programme Rokhana Pakhtunkhwa. He also appreciated the provision of free medical treatment under Benazir Health Programme to patients of hepatitis.
Habib-ur-Rehman Tanoli, an independent legislator, declared Ameer Haider Khan Hoti as people-friendly Chief Minister, which, he said, had always given equal treatment to the members of the provincial assembly. He termed measures initiated for the rehabilitation of terrorism and devastated flood affected areas exemplary. He said that the budget was balance and tax-free.
He appreciated 20 percent increase in the salaries of the employees of the provincial government. He also called for the utilisation of oil, gas and water for production of electricity, construction of Hazara Expressway and reinstatement of sacked employees. Abdul Sattar Khan, a PML-N legislator from district Kohistan, said that self-sufficiency in food and electricity was essential for the province. He said that only district Kohistan had the potential of producing 24000 MW electricity.
Saeed Nasir Batool of JUI-F appreciated the holding of pre-budget seminars. She said that as compared to education and health, the provincial government had allocated huge fund for police. She proposed the allocation of maximum funds for women development schemes. Nighat Orakzai of PML-Q termed funds allocated for welfare-oriented projects of women and children as insufficient.
ANP MPA from district Swat, Jaffar Shah, congratulated the provincial government for presenting its 5th budget and asked the government to ratify its 10-year Action Plan for hydel power generation from the provincial assembly so that future governments should also continue the projects initiated under the plan. He called for early completion of Uthror-Kalam Road for promotion of tourism in the area and raising the issue of non-inclusion of University of Swat in public sector development programme of the federal government.
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