Members Provincial Assembly (MPAs) continued a general discussion on budget in the Sindh Assembly for the eighth consecutive day on Wednesday. This discussion is scheduled to conclude on Thursday (today). Participating in the budget discussion, Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon said that the country would be facing no energy crisis if the project launched by Benazir Bhutto for the development of Thar coalfields had been continued. He said that Nawaz Sharif’s government had cancelled the project because it was based in Sindh. He also said that the demand for imposing tax on agricultural income is tantamount to imposing tax on the common man and the farmers since a farmer is an equal partner of the grower in the agricultural product.
The common man would be the victim of price-hike of agricultural products as a result of the agricultural tax because prices of essential food items would naturally increase, he added.
He challenged the claim of opposition bench’s Nusrat Saher Abbasi that the government sold jobs to the people. He asked her to either provide evidence for her claim or apologise. During her speech earlier, Abbasi had said that the government had provided 80,000 jobs to the people, but these jobs were sold to them.
At the same time, she said, the government also forced equal number of government employees to take to the streets because of job insecurity.
These employees were lady health workers working in the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC), the Sindh Education Foundation and other departments, she added.
She said that the government’s reconciliatory policy has only benefited political parties, but not the common people as they are facing the same problems at hospitals, educational institutions and in other sectors.
PPP MPA and Sindh Electric Power Minister Shazia Marri said that the government has allocated funds to develop energy as per the requirement of the province, for which an international power generating company, Three Gorges, which is based in China, has been engaged to initiate run-of-the-river hydroelectricity projects.
She said that through the 18th Constitutional Amendment, the provinces have been empowered to initiate power projects as per their requirements, whereas the provinces previously had a limit of 50 megawatt power generation. Sindh has the biggest oil and gas reservoirs as compared to the other provinces and it is planning to utilise its own oil and gas reservoirs by developing its own system, she added. She also said that Sindh would soon give its own power policy on which the Electric Power Department has been working.
Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Raza Haroon advocated in favour of agricultural income tax, saying that under the law, every citizen has to pay income tax if they earn over Rs 350,000 annually.
He said that the devolution of power from the federal government to the provinces under the 18th Constitutional Amendment should also be transferred at grassroots level for ensuring true benefit of devolution.
He complained that the KESC is involved in an artificial power shortage in Karachi under the cover of the row between its management and its employees. Awami National Party’s Amanullah Masood said that it seems that some people sitting in the government have joined hands with the KESC management and the issue is not being resolved on purpose.
