KARACHI: The MQM on Thursday rejected the fiscal budget 2020-21 for 'ignoring' the urban centres development and staged a walkout from the Sindh Assembly in protest.
Parliamentary leader of the MQM, Kunwar Naveed Jameel in his speech on the next fiscal budget censured the financial plan of Sindh, saying that "the budget has ignored [development of] urban centres of Sindh". He said that the opposition is still unaware of the current fiscal year budget spending as what projects were funded. "We will talk about the pain we have," he said.
He claimed that the budget 2020-21 envisaged no new uplift scheme for Karachi, saying that the schemes were allocated for development in Karachi during 2016 were scraped in 2017. He said that the different departments' schemes meant for Karachi were ended. He said that water is still an issue for the citizens of Karachi, which is short.
Blaming the ruling PPP for always triggering linguistic problems in the city, he said that the Pakka Qila operation was also carried out by the ruling party. After the walkout from house, MQM lawmakers staged a protest demonstration outside assembly building. They were shouting for water supplies to the city with banners in their hands read: "Give water to Karachi".
Later, Kanwar spoke to his protesting lawmakers, saying that Karachi provides the country's labourers jobs and revenue to the national exchequer but always left out from development. There is no relief for traders and businessmen in the Sindh budget, he said.
Sindh Education Minister, Saeed Ghani clamoured over fewer shares of funds through NFC Award for the federal government, saying that the Sindh government promoted students of 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th classes ahead due to the Covid-19 academic session closure. He said that the government has also made a policy for the Cambridge schooling system.
"There are huge problems but we are moving ahead," he said and added that the Sindh Education Department is repairing the old buildings of government-run schools.
Parliamentary leader of the PTI, Aleem Adil Shaikh said that his constituency has grown into ruins, alleging that the province suffers from corruption. He said that Karachi generates revenue for the entire country but there is no uplift project in Sindh budget to develop this big city. Scores of lawmakers spoke on the budget.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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