Sindh Assembly continued general debate on the proposed Budget for 2008-09 fiscal year on Friday. During the debate various issues ranging from law and order, load-shedding and to price hike came under discussion. A hot debate involving the treasury members on the possibility of a complete ban on intoxicating liquor ensued during the session, which was by Deputy Speaker Shehla Raza.
Raza took the chair in the absence of Speaker Nisar Ahmed Khoro who is presently acting as Governor of Sindh Minority MPA Salim Rasheed Khokhar of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) demand to spend the revenue, the government was collecting in terms of taxes on liquor, on the non-Muslims and not on the Muslims to whom usage of intoxicating material was religiously prohibited, stirred a prolong debate involving Provincial Minister for Excise and Taxation Mukesh Kumar Chawla.
Anwar Ali Mehr suggested a complete ban on liquor when member of provincial assembly (MPA) Shehwani of PPP reminded Khokhar that use of liquor was prohibited in the Hindu and Christian religions too. In reply, the provincial minister said no new licenses were issued for the opening of new liquor stores since 1997 and the licensed store were also selling the intoxicating item after checking National Identity Cards of the buyers.
On this, Khokar said as Muslims were purchasing the prohibited drink in the name of non-Muslims so liquor should be made available on all general stores. Khokar was, however, emotional when the minister asked him to take the initiative by selling liquor from his general store. He said he would resign from the assembly if the minister proved the existence of any such store in his (Khokar's) possession.
The half-and-hour long debate however came to an end when Jam Tamachi from treasury benches interrupted and diverted attention of the house towards budget.
During question-answer hour, Chawla told the questioner, opposition MPA Arif Mustafa Jatoi, that his department had collected Rs 1629.729 million on account of levies and excise duty from the sale of intoxicating liquor brought from various distilleries in the country during January to December 2007.
The provincial minister also gave details about the names, nature and total number of taxes collected during the same period. He said during 2007 his department had collected a total Rs 9122.674 million which included other collections like Motor Vehicle Tax amounting to Rs 2055.610 million, Excise Enactment Rs 1629.729 million, Infrastructure Cess Rs 4978.950 million, Cotton Fee Rs 107.470 million, Professional Tax Rs 184.977 million and Hotel tax Rs 165.938 million.
Chawla said the property and entertainment tax, which had already been devolved to the district governments, were being collected by his department and deposited in the account of district governments. He went on to say that the department had also collected Rs 1307.919 million including Rs 1269.809 million and Rs 38.100 million in terms of property tax and entertainment duty respectively.
Provincial Law Minister Ayaz Soomro rejecting the opposition's statement on political victimisation as a "false allegation" said nobody should misperceive the government's conciliatory attitude as its weakness.
On this, Leader of the Opposition Jam Murad Ali said he would present a copy of the FIRs lodged against two of his party members in the house in the next session and also request the speaker to hold an impartial inquiry into the matter.
On budget debate, Humera Alvani was the first to take the floor terming the budget as poor-friendly. She said next budget would not be without National Finance Commission (NFC) award. She said PPP government would also present a strong case before the Commission for its due share under the NFC Award. Showing concern on the fast deteriorating law and order situation Alvani urged the Home Minister to take serious notice of the street crimes particularly the deadly gang wars in Lyari.
Bilquees Mukhtar of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) stressing the need to change the system lamented that the bureaucracy instead of the elected government prepared even the present budget.
Abdul Razzak of Pakistan Muslim League-Q inviting the house's attention towards problems relating to education and health said due to a skyrocketing price-hike making a 100 percent increase in MPAs funds would not work. Muzaffar Shujra demanded the federal government to increase development funds for the Sindh government.
Mir Hasan Khoso came with a suggestion that hospitals in Interior Sindh, where doctors were more interested in running private clinics instead of performing duties in the government health units, should be given to the private sector. Commenting on a 20 percent increase in the pay scale of government employees, Khoso said the government should also keep a vigilant eye on the performance of public sector employees.
Slamming the PPP-led government for a poor law and order situation in the province the MPA said a minor, who was kidnapped 20 months ago, was still missing while the rate of crimes was also on the rise. MQM's Zareen Majeed terming the budget as "awami budget" said there was a strong need for keeping a permanent check on inflation and fee structures of the private schools and hospitals.
Amanullah Mehsud of Awami National Party (ANP) demanding establishment of desalination plants in Karachi called for concrete measures to curtail the hours-long load-shedding. He declared that not a single hospital and educational institute of Karachi was providing standard services. He said corruption was still rampant in police department and the new police system had brought no relief to the crimes-hit masses.
Ghulam Ali Nizamani and Nadeem Bhutto also highlighted the outbreak of Hepatitis in Sanghar, Nawab Shah and Mirpurkhas and an alleged conspiracy to merge Thatta and Jamshoro into Balochistan respectively. Later, the deputy speaker adjourned the session till Monday (June 23) evening.
Outside the house, a camp was established in the Assembly Building where at least 25 MPAs including Deputy Speaker Shehla Raza, Anwar Ali Mehr, Fahim Mughal and Shamim Ara Panor donated blood in commemoration of their slain party leader Benazir Bhutto's birth day on June 21.