• MNAs from Sindh ask Centre to provide ‘promised’ funds for flood-hit areas
• Complain about non-cooperative attitude of ministers
• Khawaja Asif apologises to vice-chancellors over ‘inappropriate’ remarks

ISLAMABAD: Fissures within the ruling coalition were visible in the National Assembly on Friday when lawmakers belonging to the PPP, while taking part in the debate on the federal budget, assailed the ruling PML-N for not providing promised funds to the Sindh government for rehabilitation and reconstruction of the flood-affected areas and “denying” the province its due share from the tax amount.

The PPP lawmakers in their speeches blamed the PML-N for not taking sufficient measures to provide relief to the poor, reduce prices and resolve the energy crisis and expressed concern over the ambiguity regarding the allocation of development funds.

Holding the PML-N responsible for all the ills and defects in the budget, the PPP lawmakers claimed that the credit for increase in salaries and pensions of government employees went to former president Asif Ali Zardari upon “whose insistence the government agreed to give the raise”.

Similarly, a number of PPP MNAs praised their party chairman and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari for a “successful” foreign policy and getting assistance for the flood-hit areas while effectively raising the climate change issue at the international forums.

No one from the PML-N, however, gave a direct response to the PPP members, but in their speeches, they kept on praising Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar for presenting the “best possible budget” under the prevailing economic conditions.

Responding to the PPP members’ complaints about non-release of funds for the flood-affected people of Sindh, Minister of State for Finance Aisha Ghaus Pasha, who remained present in the thinly-attended house for most of the time, briefly stated that the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) was working for early rehabilitation of the flood-affected areas.

She said the Centre, in collaboration with the Sindh government, would further deliberate on matters related to relief and rehabilitation of the people affected by heavy floods and rains last year.

Earlier in the day, a PPP member had also raised the issue during a meeting of the house committee on finance, terming the budget “unrealistic”. However, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar forcefully defended the budget and refuted the impression that he had presented it keeping in view the upcoming budget.

Budget debate

But the most hard-hitting speech of the day came from Nasiba Channa, elected on a reserved seat for women, who said the government had failed to provide any relief to the poor in the budget.

As many as 17 lawmakers took part in the lacklustre debate on the federal budget which the finance minister had presented before the opposition-less National Assembly on June 9.

“What is there for the poor in the budget? I regret to say that nothing has been thought for them [the poor],” she said, while alleging that the government had made the budget for the elite. She said the poor were reeling under price hike and the government had failed to provide them any relief.

Ms Channa regretted that neither there was electricity nor gas available to the people despite constant increase in their prices. She also castigated the government for not taking any step to reduce prices of commodities, like chicken, pulses, vegetables, eggs, milk, cooking oil, flour and rice.

She said the people had great hopes from the present government, but now “they are crying”. She said the people believed that the present government was “worse than the previous government” of Imran Khan.

She also criticised the PML-N ministers for not giving them time and not making any effort to resolve the problems being faced by the people.

The PPP MNA said the elections were near and they were unable to face their constituents. She also said the government had announced a laptop scheme for the students, but nobody knew as to the students of which province would get these laptops. “May Allah bring the PPP in power which will think about the people,” she prayed in her speech.

Another PPP MNA from Qamber-Shahdadkot Amer Magsi said the government had allocated Rs30bn for solarisation of 50,000 tube-wells, but no mechanism had been provided for it and they did not know in which province these tube-wells were situated.

PPP MNA from Naushehro Feroze Abrar Shah complained that Sindh was not being given its due share from the divisible pool. Moreover, he alleged that arrears had also not been paid to the province by the federal government.

He said Sindh would be getting Rs284bn share against over Rs500bn share of Punjab, terming it “an injustice”.

Minister’s apology

At the outset of the sitting, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif offered his sincere apologies to the vice chancellors of the country’s universities for passing “inappropriate remarks” against them during his recent speech in the assembly.

The minister acknowledged that he had wrongly used the word “robbers” for the VCs and asked Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf to expunge it from the record, which the latter did.

The minister said he had seen in the newspapers that the VCs had written a letter to the speaker “rightly condemning” him, stating that he had deep respect for teachers and educational institutions.

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2023