The PPP-dominated Sindh Assembly on Friday approved the provincial government’s 59 demands for grants worth over Rs 658.624 billion to be spent during fiscal year 2013-2014.
Also, the 168-member house passed a supplementary budget of over Rs 56.999 billion for the outgoing financial year 2012-2013.
The house rejected over a thousand cut motions the opposition lawmakers, mostly from MQM, submitted to propose cut on the government’s “unnecessary expenditures” in FY14.
However, no cut motions were filed by the opposition members to propose decrease in the supplementary budget.
The opposition legislators submitted at least 1112 cut motions against the 59 demands for grants the government sought for the new fiscal year.
“As per tradition, we knew all these cut motions would be rejected by the dominant treasury. But we need to cut on luxurious expenditures,” said Naheed Begum of the MQM. As some lawmakers called it, time-wasting controversy erupted in the house over the presentation and voting of over a thousand cut motions in the time-bound Assembly. Khawaja Izharul Hasan, Sardar Ahmed and Khalid Ahmed of the MQM, referring to Rule 124, believed that the motions be read out and responded one by one.
Senior Minister Nisar Khuhro, Shehla Raza, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani and Dr Sikander Mandhro, quoting Rules 121, 123, 125 and 182, opined that the members should read their cut motions in totality and the treasury benches would then respond to the same accordingly.
“What’s going on? Is this the first time we are passing a budget,” exclaimed a visibly irritated Nusrat Saher Abbasi of the PML-F.
Those who complained of the wastage of time include Syed Hafeezuddin of the PTI and Bijarani of the PPP. Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani, however, seemed to have decided to punish the opposition members for bringing such a huge number of cut motions, 1112, in the house.
“This is how you learn the parliamentary system that would take you no less than five years to be used to,” he told Hafeezuddin when the PTI lawmaker objected to the debate.
For next couple of hours the MQM members kept reading their cut motions one by one which exhausted Naheed Begum at one point and she requested for some water that was provided to her on the floor of the house, on none other than the speaker’s order. Ultimately, Khuhro drew the house towards the interminable activity as he called for clubbing all the motions and putting the same for vote. The house, as expected, vetoed the motions. The house will reassemble today, Saturday, at 9:30am.
The house is slated to pass the proposed Finance Bill that envisages over Rs 658.62 billion fiscal plan for the province today (Saturday). It, however, has to be seen what fate the passage would have as, apparently, the PPP is facing a strong opposition from the MQM, PML-F, PML-N and PTI in the 168-member house.