Pre-budget session: PTI, GDA MPAs stage walkout from Sindh Assembly

KARACHI: The PTI and GDA - two opposition parties on Friday staged a protest walkout from the Sindh Assembly, saying that the government did not inform and consulted with them about the pre-budget session.

The pre-budget sitting was marred first by low presence of legislators and then a protest walkout by the two opposition parties including the PTI and GDA.

“The house is set to debate on the budget but legislators are not arriving,” Speaker Aga Siraj Khan Durrani lamented after witnessing a thin attendance, which forced the assembly to stay adjourned for 25 minutes until the quorum completes.

The opposition legislators complained that the government neither consulted with them nor informed them about the pre-budget, and subsequently staged a noisy protest in the house.

After the Speaker announced to open the debate on the budget, GDA’s lawmaker, Shehryar Khan Mahar stood up from his seat and protested that the government did not inform the opposition about the session in advance.

In reply, Mukesh Kumar Chawla, the Sindh Parliamentary Affairs Minister, said that the GDA legislator is unaware of the debate because he does not attend the assembly.

Meantime, Chawla and Mahar exchanged bitter words, which turned the proceedings chaotic. Other GDA legislators also stood up to support Mahar and shouted chants.

Opposition leader, Haleem Adil Sheikh of the PTI asked the Speaker to postpone the session since the GDA and other parties are uninformed on the debate. In reply, Durrani said that he was not going to follow his advice for the house adjournment.

Immediately, the GDA members walked out of the session in protest, which the PTI legislators accompanied. With the exit of both parliamentary parties, the house began the pre-budget debate with PPP’s Qasim Soomro calling the opposition “unaware” of the public problems.

He said that the recent floods have destroyed the road, civic and agricultural infrastructure in Sindh with closing down over 20,000 schools. He said that the floods devastations have affected the provincial budgetary allocations as well.

“We have to focus more on rehabilitating our (public) sectors,” he told the house, saying that there is a need to redevelop the healthcare sector in the post floods scenario.

He claimed that every department has done its best to provide relief to the affected people in floods and rehabilitate the ravaged infrastructure, saying that the government is working to rehabilitate the flood affectees.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023