Joint opposition in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Thursday termed the provincial government budget for financial year 2016-16 as deficit and jugglery of words and called for the review of budget documents to remove shortcomings from it. The provincial assembly opened debate on the annual budget for financial year 2016-17 with Speaker Asad Qaiser in the chair. The opposition leader, Maulana Lutf-ur-Rehman opened debate on the budget with a detailed speech on different aspects of the provincial budget.
Others opposition legislators, which participated in debate annual budget were included Sardar Aurangzeb Nalotha of PML-N, Saleem Khan PPP and Syed Jaffar Shah of ANP. However, the Provincial ministers Shah Farman, Mohammad Atif Khan and Special Assistant to CM on Information, Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani defended and appreciated the budget as balance and people-friendly.
Opening debate on budget, opposition leader, Maulana Lutf-ur-Rehman said that they have also termed last budget deficit and the estimated receipts of the budget for the outgoing year shows that it will also be proved as deficit budget. He said that the last year budget was having the deficit of Rs 27 billion and the deficit of the next year will reach to Rs 60 billion. He said that like last, the provincial government will miss the receipt target of Rs 15 billion from the utilisation of the government lands. Similarly, he questioned that how a budget based on debts could be called a balanced one. He said that instead of making a balanced budget, the government should accept the reality and prepare a deficit budget showing the debts of the provincial government.
The leader of the Opposition also criticised the provincial government for failure in the abolition of the class-based education system as per its electoral commitment and asked the government for showing the actual outcome of its efforts in this regard. He said that on the one hand the government is talking to generate employment opportunities, but on the other hand it had planned to sack 10,000 teachers from their services.
The Opposition leader was also critical of less allocation for roads sector and said that the budget is basically limited to only four districts. Therefore, it could not be called the budget of the whole province. In response to the outburst of the Opposition leader, Provincial Minister for Public Health Engineering (PHE), Shah Farman defended the budget. He said that though they would expel 10,000 teachers, but on the other hand will recruit 20,000 more. He said that the government has increased agriculture budget by 151 percent as compared to outgoing financial year.
Sardar Aurangzeb Nalotha of PML-N also lamented that the budget is concentrated on only a few districts of the province while majority of the districts have been ignored. He said that the PTI government had failed to implement even 10 percent of its promises with the people. He said that the levy of taxes on five sectors of the province will affect all people of the province. Therefore, it should be withdrawn with immediate effect.
He said that though the government is claiming the spending of billions of rupees on education sector, but still it had failed to restore the confidence of the people on public sector institutions.
Sardar Nalotha though agreed with the contention of the provincial ministers regarding improvement in law and order, said that after 2013 situation in the province had improved into some extent, but also reminded that the PTI government in KP was ready even offering opening of office to Taliban. He said that the PTI leadership was even not agreed with operation Zarb-e-Azb and paid tributes to the Prime Minister and the Army Chief for the restoration of peace in the country.
Saleem Khan of PPP said that the champions of justice have done nothing with the people of Chitral. He said that though a total of 22 bridges have been washed away in Chitral, but the provincial government had allocated only Rs 15 million for them. Responding to the speeches of opposition legislators, Special Assistant to CM on Information, Mushtaq Ghani defended the budget and went on to say that in current situation better budget from presented one is impossible. He claimed that the provincial government has curtailed non-development expenditure and specially mentioned the cut down of the expenses of Chief Minister's House to merely Rs 50 million. He dispelled the impression of the ignoring of any district, saying the budget is based on justice.
Syed Jaffar Shah of ANP also criticised the budget and said that his constituency has been deprived of an already included project, which is sheer injustice. He said that the people of his constituency have the rights over the resources of the province as available to the people of Nowshera and Swabi. Meanwhile, Dr Haider Ali of PTI through a point of order raised the issue of excessive power load shedding in district Swat in the house and announced a walkout to stage protest against it.
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