KARACHI: Opposition on Friday censured the PPP government for its “failure” to develop the province in its 15-year rule but the treasury smelt ethnic “prejudice” behind the criticism during the Sindh Assembly sitting.
“If pointing at anything (bad), then it is dubbed prejudice,” Javed Hanif of the MQM said during a daylong debate on budget 2023-24 in the assembly.
He criticized the PPP for even not enabling the education sector to help impart skills to students to read basic Urdu and Sindhi languages in its 15-year long rule in the province. “Some 48 percent students are unable to read basic Urdu and Sindhi,” he censured the government, saying that the government-run schools do not have basic infrastructure.
Faryal Talpur of the PPP congratulated the Chief Minister Sindh for giving a “good and people-friendly” budget for the next fiscal year.
“Mayor of Mirpurkhas is Urdu-speaking. It is our large-heartedness,” she said and invited the opposition to support the Karachi’s new mayor, and end differences.
She defended her party’s rule, saying that the government stood by the flood affectees in Sindh in difficult times. Sharjeel Memon, Sindh Information Minister said: “Here are many to do politics of hatred but few unite”. He said that it is his party’s rule that made the megacity free of crimes like vandalism, strikes, torching of vehicles and extortion. “We want to end the politics of hatred,” he told the house. He also enumerated his government’s efforts during the floods to rescue and shelter the affectees, providing them with foods and rations. “We have fulfilled pledges made to flood affectees,” Sharjeel claimed.
Mufti Qasim Fakhri of the TLP called the PPP’s rule “entirely failed” in its 15 years, saying that it could not develop a single hospital with all medical facilities in Sindh.
He also slammed the PPP government for not even being able to develop education sector to impart a better learning to the kids. “People are unrolling their kids from government schools,” he claimed that schools buildings are used to shelter animals.
Budget allocation for free textbooks yields no results to help students find a syllabus without a charge, he said, adding: “these textbooks are piled up in trash”.
“The budget got an Rs534billion of increase for the next fiscal year but nothing seems streamlined,” he said and showed concerns over ‘ghost’ teaching staff at the public sector schools.
MQM’s Khawaja Izhar-ul-Hasan said that the people of Karachi have never blocked the government’s any move that helps invest in the rural areas for developments. “You do spend it but shows nowhere,” he said.
He said that his elders had migrated to the seacoast in the newly Pakistan in 1947, which now yields diamonds. He said that the poor have difficulties to get admitted in the Jinnah Hospital.
He also questioned the government’s loose control over the private schools “mafia”. He also criticized the next fiscal budget for having over 80 different taxes, saying there is not a single budget to proud of”. Syed Sardar Shah, Sindh Education Minister, said that the politics of hatred brought the MQM into an impasse. “We love all languages,” he told the assembly, saying that “we have not expressed hatred”. He said that the floods damaged 20,000 school structures, which need rehabilitation as the government has sought the international donors’ help. He said that the government is upgrading 4,000 out of 36,000 primary schools this year.
Syed Abdul Rasheed of the MMA called it “elites’” budget and blamed the PPP for “corruption” in every sector. Schemes started in 2008 stills continue. “If you cannot complete the old schemes then why do you start new ones,” he questioned.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
Comments
Comments are closed.