KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly on Saturday continued debate on budget 2021-22, which saw praises from treasury, while opposition termed it a figures game. The house held the budget discussion for the second day, as opposition parties blamed the PPP government for not being to solve a ‘single issue’ of the province in its 13-year rule.

The treasury defended and lauded the fiscal budget 2021-22 proposing an allocation of Rs172 billion for the province healthcare sector alone. A lady lawmaker of the PTI, Rabia Azfar Nizami criticized the PPP rule, saying the Sindh Education and Healthcare Sectors are in tatters.

The post-primary dropout number of students in Sindh is 2.3 million, she added. Some 4 million children are out of education system, while 10,000 are forced to beg, she said that no furniture was brought to schools over the past 7 years. The Sindh education boards are out of funds for the past two years while chief minister is ‘too busy’ to respond to their letters.

PPP’s Ghazala Sial defended the budget 2021-22, saying that the financial plan for the next fiscal year has proposed an allocation of Rs172 billion for the healthcare sector. The Sindh government, she said, has stepped up to streamline its all public sectors, she claimed that the healthcare fiscal allocation is higher what other provinces have proposed in this regard.

PPP’s Syeda Marvi Faseeh said her party government has scaled up the minimum wage for laborer class, saying that the locusts attack badly damaged the province agriculture sector. She was of the view that Rs3 billion proposed for the agriculture sector was insufficient. The country’s backbone is its agriculture sector, she added. PPP’s Jam Shabbier congratulated the Sindh government for a “free budget” budget l, saying his party ruled envisaged a 30 percent increase for the healthcare sector.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021