KARACHI, June 24: The Sindh Assembly on Tuesday, in the absence of the opposition, unanimously adopted a resolution reposing confidence in the leadership of President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali.

The resolution was moved by Education Minister Irfanullah Khan Marwat after the discussion on budget was completed.

The resolution appreciated Gen Musharraf’s meeting at Camp David and also supported his policies which, the ruling coalition claimed, had put the country on the road to economic progress and improved Pakistan’s image abroad.

Sindh Assembly is the third elected body after National Assembly and the Punjab Assembly to pass a resolution supporting Gen Musharraf.

Another resolution moved by Minister for Local Government Mohammad Hussain Khan was also adopted unanimously.

It called for further probe into the attempt by the opposition member to physically assault the finance minister when he was presenting the provincial budget on June 16.

The House constituted a five-member committee to view videos of the events and other material and present its report in 10 days.

The members of the committee are Irfanullah Khan Marwat, Syed Shoaib Bukhari, Irfan Gul Magsi, Mohammad Hussain Khan and Arbab Ghulam Rahim.

Earlier, winding up the general discussion, Chief Minister Ali Mohammad Mahar said that no new tax had been levied and promised to make the province a model province.

He said that his government had taken up the issue of NFC with the federal government and hoped some positive result very soon.

Regarding the alleged uncalled for remarks by the Punjab irrigation minister on the Greater Thal Canal project, the CM referred to his conversation with his Punjab counterpart Chaudhary Pervez Elahi and said that Mr Elahi had restrained his minister against such comments.

He informed the House that law and order remained his top priority and observed that there had been improvement in this regard. He pointed out that the country’s exports had crossed the US$10 billion mark while the Karachi Stock Exchange index also crossed 3,300 points.

Mr Mahar also referred to the Thar Coal project and claimed that the previous governments had made power generation expensive. With the completion of this project, he said, electricity would become cheaper and Sindh would be able to provide electricity to the entire country.

He denied that his government had pursued politics of victimization against opposition members. However, he lashed out at the opposition for its uncalled for behaviour.

He stated that President Musharraf was currently on a visit to the United States and the people of Pakistan should express solidarity with him on the occasion.

The chief minister said that the district government system would stay and that people would be provided facilities at the grassroots level.

Syed Sardar Ahmed deplored the opposition for boycotting the budget debate and said they had, in fact, betrayed their electorate.

The other ministers who took part in the general debate on budget were Shoaib Bukhari, Irfanullah Marwat, Mohammad Hussain, Manzoor Panhwar and Iftikhar Chaudhary.