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Friday, September 20, 2024  
15 Rabi ul Awal 1446  

MQM, other opposition parties reject budget

Leader of opposition in Sindh Assembly Khawaja Izhar Ul Hassan. - File photo

The opposition benches in Sindh Assembly have unanimously rejected the annual budget-2016-17 for the province of Sindh on the basis of their claims that the budget has failed to reflect the aspirations and expectations of the common men.

When the Senior Minister for Finance Syed Murad Ali Shah was busy in presenting the annual budget, the opposition benches had continued with their protest and they had worn typical arm-banner that carried an inscription of "Say No To Corruption."

Later, leader of opposition in Sindh Assembly Khawaja Izhar Ul Hassan while talking to the newsmen outside the Assembly premises said though the provincial government has presented the budget to the tune of 869 billion, it does not have the ability to ensure complete utilisation of that huge amount of money.

He said the opposition had been tuned to the speech of the Finance Minister with complete calmness and would expect the treasury benches to also show the same spirit during speeches of the opposition benches.

Hassan said the taxes levied in the annual budget are meant to cater to the corrupt elite living abroad and in country. The provincial government had failed to utilise funds that were earmarked in previous budget and of which it had only utilised just 40 percent which is a candid manifest of their ineligibility.

He said the people of the province were now fully convinced that the Sindh government was totally a corrupt and whatever they had presented in the budget was to please the corruption mafia. The provincial government has annexed the slogan of "Say No To Corruption" but the Finance Bill did not carry that particular slogan which is self-explanatory.

He said even the Finance Minister had admitted that Ministers in Sindh Cabinet were ineligible. He also criticised the Sindh government over ignoring Karachi and Hyderabad with regard to need of those two mega city of the province for development.

He said the Finance Minister even did not know that the prices of vegetables had been hiked by 30 percent and still the Minister was trumpeting his drum on the plans for agriculture.

The Sindh government has totally ignored the needs of a common man in the budget and no scheme is offered for this current holy month of Ramadan.

The budget is full of perks and opportunities for the mafia that always dwells on kick-back. He said whatever ease and facility was seen in the province was because of the mercy of foreign countries especially foreign NGOs or else the situation in Sindh would be fully devastating.

Copyright News Network International, 2016