The Sindh assembly on Tuesday gave assent to the provincial budget for 2006-07 and the finance bill in the absence of opposition MPAs, who boycotted the session after coming to know that a case had been registered against their four colleagues for thrashing minority MPA Eshwar Lal.
The assembly session started with speaker Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah at 9:37am and after recitation from holy Quran and Naat, Sindh law minister Chaudhry Iftikhar presented a motion for suspension of question hour, which was accepted by the house.
The session was adjourned till 2 in the afternoon after debate on a cut motion by the opposition, during which PPP MPAs Shazia Marri and Humaira Alwani spoke and presented their arguments in favour of their motions.
When the session resumed at 2:15pm, opposition MPAs observed a token walkout from the house in protest against government's attitude in Hyderabad.
Leader of the opposition in Sindh Assembly Nisar Khuhro objected on expenses of the chief minister house, and said ministers and advisors were being provided huge sums of money for nothing.
Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) MPA Nasarullah Shajee spoke on situation in Karachi and said Karachi was hit by worst kind of terrorism as a large number of ulema, political and religious leaders and common people were brutally murdered.
His speech annoyed Muhammad Hussain of Muttahida Qaumi Movement but the speaker controlled the situation.
Summing up the debate, Sindh senior minister Syed Sardar Ahmed said members expressed their views on the budget today, which they could not speak out earlier during the debate session and defended allocations in various heads in the budget for 2006-07.
Later, the house gave approval to first demand for grant with numerical superiority and rejected all 300 cut motions. Later, demands for grants from 2 to 13 clubbed together and 15 to 59 were given approval by rejecting all cut motions by the house.
After adoption of all demands for grants, the house also accepted the 14th demand for grant and the house with majority vote rejected all cut motions of the opposition.
At around 5:29pm, the house in the absence of opposition gave approval to provincial budget 2006-07 followed by approval of Sindh finance bill which was presented by Sindh law minister Chaudhry Iftikhar.
Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim said on Tuesday the opposition took the support of "chit diplomacy" to spoil the session on Sindh's exemplary budget.
He said they had nothing to say on the budget and no one can beat up any one else on mere 'chit'.
He said when opposition comes into power, it resorts to violence and when they are in the opposition they do it out of frustration. "But they should know that we are not wearing bangles and they should stop such practice," he said while speaking in the Sindh assembly after the passing of budget for fiscal 2006-07.
Dr Arbab said they (opposition) talk about charter of democracy but their own decisions are undemocratic and they take dictatorial decisions. "We took democratic decisions and served the people who mandated us for this reason. The people of Sindh don't want Luddi and Ho Jamalo groups but serving of their cause." He declared again in next general elections, the people will defeat the Luddi group.
The chief minister said what PPP did inside the house was enough for dissolution of the assembly but President Pervez Musharraf is firm to see assemblies complete their term. He said if Eshwar Lal had committed a wrong, the speaker should have been informed about it and if he had not resolved the issue, then the opposition should have protested.
Eshwar Lal, he said, had not committed a sin because inside the house, members do not talk to each other but give chits.
Speaker Syed Muzaffar Hussain prorogued the session immediately after the speech of chief minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim.