KARACHI: Sindh Assembly on Friday approved the provincial budget for the fiscal year 2020-21 amid ruckus from the opposition.
The house met with Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani in the chair. The opposition members asked for speeches but were denied permission and started raising slogans.
The opposition party lawmakers surrounded the speaker’s rostrum and pasted banners and raised slogans. Speaker Durrani to suspend all the speeches and gave the floor to Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah.
After the concluding speech of the chief minister, the Sindh assembly approved the budget for the fiscal year 2021-22 amid the hue and cry of the opposition.
A day earlier on the sixth and final day of the post-budget discussion, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) created a noisy protest in the assembly.
MQM-P members had been boycotting the post-budget session since its beginning for neglecting urban parts of Sindh. The lawmakers gathered in front of the speaker’s desk and chanted slogans against the provincial government.
Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani had to adjourn the house initially as all efforts including by Information Minister Syed Nasir Shah and members of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf to bring the MQM-P back to their seats failed.
Opposition Leader Haleem Adil Sheikh and parliamentary leaders of PTI and Grand Democratic Alliance leaders Bilal Ahmed and Hasnain Mirza respectively went to MQM-P’s parliamentary leader Kunwar Naveed Jamil and asked them to end the protest.
Syed Nasir Hussain Shah also went to the protesting members but the MQM-P turned down all requests and continued the protest even after resumption of proceedings.
On June 15, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, who also holds the portfolio of Finance Minister, had presented the budget of the province for the next fiscal year 2021-22.
The total outlay of the budget for the province is estimated at Rs1.477 trillion, witnessing an increase of 19.1 percent from the previous year.
The total receipts of the province for Financial Year 2021-22 are estimated at Rs.1.452 trillion as against a budget estimate of Rs.1.22 trillion for CFY, showing an overall increase of 19 percent.
