QUETTA, June 27: The Balochistan Assembly on Friday approved the budget proposals of Rs60.27 billion for fiscal year 2008-09 without any cut motion.

Finance Minister Mir Mohammad Asim Kurd, moved 41 demand drafts of Rs44.53 billion for the current expenditures one after the other in the house. He also moved nine demand drafts of Rs15.74 billion for the Public Sector Development Programme.

The assembly passed all the 50 demand drafts within 35 minutes as no cut motion was received in the assembly secretariat till Friday morning.

The lone opposition member Sardar Yar Mohammad Rind was present in the House while 62 members did not attend the budget session.

It was the first time in the parliamentary history of the assembly that the budget was passed without any cut motion. Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani enjoys the support of 61 of the 62 members of the assembly, who belong to the PPP, BNP-Awami, JUI-F, ANP, PML-N and the group of independents.

The highest amount of Rs20.46 billion was approved for non-development expenditures during 2008-09 for provincial share in GST proceeds at 2.5 per cent. The second highest allocation of the Rs4. 53 billion was made in the non-development budget to meet the expenditures of general administration, including organ of the state, fiscal administration, economic regulation, publicity and information.

The provincial government will spend a sum of Rs4.06 billion during the next financial year on police to maintain law and order in the province. A sum of Rs3 billion was allocated for pensions of the government employees. Another sum of Rs2.69 billion was approved for the current expenditures of the Irrigation department.

In the non-development budget Rs2.23 billion were shown for expenditures in the education field. Another amount of Rs1.57 billion was allocated to meet the expenditures on health.

The provincial government would provide Rs1.43 billion for the non-development expenditure of the agriculture sector. The government decided to continue giving subsidy to farmers and for this purpose Rs600 million were approved by the assembly.

In the development budget 2008-09, the provincial government would spend an amount of Rs7.49 billion on economic affairs, Rs4.86 billion on general administration, and Rs2.22 billion on education and services.

Earlier, Irrigation Minister Sardar Aslam Bizenjo raised the issue of Reko Dik copper gold project signed by the former government with foreign companies and demanded that the details of the multi-billion dollars agreement be made public.

He pointed out that the Chilean and Canadian companies had signed the agreement with the former PML (Q)-led government for the exploration of gold and cooper reserves from Reko Dik area of Chagai district with the Balochistan government as partner on 25 per cent equity.

Mr Bizenjo said that he had learnt that both companies had now asked the Balochistan government that it would get its 25 per cent shares when it would bear total cost of the project jointly with the companies, including construction of roads, airstrip, a railway line and other facilities.

He said that the former chief minister Jam Yousuf visited Chile along with some senior bureaucrats to sign the agreement with the Chilean and Canadian companies. He said that the raw material of Balochistan being used in the project should be considered as its 25 per cent equity.

Mr Bizenjo said that the secrecy of the agreement was creating doubts about the multi-billion world's biggest copper-gold project.

Production of this project was estimated 200,000 tons of copper and 400,000 ounces of gold annually.

Speaker Mohammad Aslam Bhootani directed the finance minister to make arrangements for a briefing on the Reko Dik project agreement during the current assembly session.