The PML-F on Wednesday compared Larkana with Moenjodaro, saying that streets of the ancient ruins were far tidier than those of the PPP's founding leader's hometown, despite billions of rupees budgetary allocations every year. The Sindh Assembly resumed its budget debate for the second day with PML-F's lawmaker, Shaharyar Khan Mehar's stern criticism of the provincial government, calling corruption the 'main cause' of poor governance in the province.
He said that the government had allocated considerable funds for education, healthcare, local bodies and law and order. He termed the monetary allocations as a 'better' budget for the next fiscal year 2016-17. He, however, said that the budget spending had been never seen visible to help develop the public sectors. "The government has spared a sizeable amount for development of education, healthcare, law and order and local bodies, which is a good sign. However the bigger issue is corruption and bad governance," Mehar told the house, saying that "such big allocations cannot be spent under the circumstances".
He also demanded resignation from senior Sindh Education Minister, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, saying that "education system in Sindh is in tatters. The senior minister has demanded of Prime minister's resignation who himself cannot tackle his education secretary." He said that the government had been allocated billion of rupees in budget as development packages to the different cities but all in vain.
"For the next year eight billion rupees have been spared in the budget for Larkana. In fact today, the streets of Moenjodaro are far tidier and better than those of Larkana," he said, adding that the Sindh province had been sidelined in the CPEC and blamed the provincial government for failing to fight the case in a better way with the centre. He asked the Sindh government to stop criticising the NAB and rather focus on improving its performance.
MQM's legislator Syed Khalid Ahmed also slammed the Sindh government for not providing the provincial finance commission award, saying that "the government has deprived the district of their financial rights". He claimed that the government had diverted funds meant for Karachi development to the other cities uplift in the next fiscal year budget. "A lot is being said about Thar coal and K-IV projects but none is starting," he said.
PPP's lawmaker, Dr Mahesh Kumar Malani said that his party's government had been focusing on developing of Thar that scaled down new-born children mortality far below when compared to the country's other parts. "Previously death rate of new-born babies was 85 percent which is now 14 percent," he told the house. He added that the PPP government had installed some 507 RO plants in Thar so far out of a total 750 sanctioned. About 382 plants were functional, he said.
PML-F's lady legislator Mehtab Akbar Rashdi termed the Sindh budget a 'dearth' of vision and affective planning. Citing Economic Survey, she said that literacy rate in Sindh had reduced to 56 percent with a collapsing education system. She said that Rs 225 billion annual development fund would yield no results to help develop the province if not spent properly.
She also criticised the controversial city project of Zulfiqarbad, saying that the budgetary amount of Rs 14 billion spared for its development should have been spent on other cities' basic civic infrastructure. "There are about 3.6 million people jobless in Sindh while at least 1.5 million needed to be employed," Rashid said. PPP's women lawmaker, Ghazal Syed complained about long-hours power load shedding in the province, saying that several villages were without electricity. She said that federal government had never paid attention to generate power and on the other hand, Wapda and K-Electric subsidies of Rs 55 billions were slashed. She termed the fiscal budget 2016-17 as 'people's friendly'.
Earlier, the MQM legislators staged a walkout from the house against an FIR lodged by Rangers Rabita Committee's member Aminul Haq. Opposition leader Khawaja Izhar-ul-Hasan criticised the Sindh government for being 'unaware' of the situation. The house will now meet on Thursday.