KARACHI - Sindh Assembly on Saturday once again witnessed chaotic scenes as lawmakers belonging to Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) almost indulged into a physical brawl as both parties hurled unparliamentary words against each other’s leadership.

It all started when Arsalan Taj of PTI during his budget speech lambasted the PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zaradri without naming him for his ‘foolish’ statement in the National Assembly. Syed Zulfikar Shah of PPP waited for his turn to hit back at the PTI and he too used unparliamentary words against the latter’s leadership including Prime Minister Imran Khan. “In the next elections we will throw out this garbage,” the PPP member said. In response, PTI’s Raja Azhar also hurled some remarks which could not be heard in the press gallery but Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla lost his cool and aggressively moved towards the PTI member but they were separated by members from both sides. During his speech, Syed Zulfikar Shah also hurled unparliamentary words against Grand Democratic Alliance’s (GDA) Arif Mustafa Jatoi. 

‘4.5 million children 

are out of school’

Earlier, PTI’s Rabia Azfar Nizami said that there were over 12 million children in the province and only 4.5 million were enrolled in the government schools and as many were out of schools, while 3.7 million were in private schools. She said that 2.3 million children dropped out after 5th grade.

In next elections we will throw out this (PTI) garbage, PPP legislator remarks

Rabia said that literacy rate in rural Sindh was 36 percent which was even lower than Balochistan where it was 55 percent. The PTI MPA quoting a report of an NGO said that 100,000 children were indulged in bagging while 3.38 million were subjected to forced labour in the province.

“As many as 980 children were abused in the province during the past one year,” she said. She added that huge amount was earmarked for the purchase of schools’ furniture in every budget but no furniture was bought for the past eight years. The PTI member recalled that the chief minister had announced three years ago that the education boards would not charge examination fee from the students, but the decision was yet to be implemented. Rabia said that the future of 70 percent students of government schools was at stake in view of COVID-19 situation as they did not have facilities of internet. She said there was a shortage of teachers in government schools as 37,000 posts were lying vacant.  She said that there were 29 teachers training institute across the province but only two were operational. She suggested that at least one million children should be enrolled every year in schools.

Speaking about the lack of health and educational facilities in Thar, Rabia said that district of 1.6 million people was known for hunger and poverty. “There is not a single school for girls in three Talukas of the district,” she deplored.

 ‘Govt trying its best to 

provide health facilities’

Ghazala Sial of PPP said that the provincial government was trying its best to provide health facilities to the people of Sindh as ‘huge’ amount of Rs172 billion for health was earmarked. She said that the centre was bent upon crippling the province economically. The PPP MPA said that Sindh had proposed 70 schemes to the federal government but none of them was approved.

PPP’s Syeda Marvi Faseeh welcomed the budget and said that there should have been more allocation for agriculture as the growers incurred huge losses due to heavy rains and locusts attack in the province. She appreciated the provincial government for allocating Rs500 million for the women associated with agriculture sector. The PPP MPA demanded that the land being cultivated by the women should be leased in their names.

‘City of Bhuttos is neglected’

Grand Democratic Alliance’s (GDA) Moazzam Ali Abbasi vehemently criticised the provincial government for the lack of civic and medical facilities in Larkana and said that if the Sindh government could not bring any positive change in the district of ‘Bhuttos’ what can it do in rest of the province. He said that there were mafias in every department including the education department. Mir Shabbir Ali came down hard on the federal government for what he called changing the name of Benazir Income Support Programme to Ehsaas Programme. “Benazir Bhutto lives in hearts of the people,” he added and said that injustices were being committed with Sindh by the Centre.

Arsalan Taj of PTI termed the provincial budget ‘a bundle of lies’ and came down hard on the provincial government for not achieving its revenue target. “The provincial government could only collect Rs610 million agriculture income tax while Karachiites paid Rs850 million in the head of traffic challan,” he added.

PPP’s Syed Zulfikar Shah, Yousuf Baloch, Ameer Ali Shah, Shazia Kareem, Tariq Talpur, Taj Muhmmad Mallah, Yousuf Baloch and Tanzeela Umi Habiba; PTI’s Muhammad Shabbir Qureshi, Raja Azhar and Shahzad Qureshi; and GDA’s Arif Mustafa Jatoi and Naseem Rajper also spoke on the occasion.

 MQM-P abstained from 

budget speeches

Meanwhile, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) desisted from debating on the budget as most of the party’s lawmakers didn’t attend Saturday’s sitting. When asked by Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani, Firdaus Shamim Naqvi of PTI said that the MQM-P members were not pleased with allocated time of 10 minutes for each member to make his budget speech. “You all decided that in a meeting held earlier,” the Speaker replied.

Later, the house was adjourned to Monday (tomorrow).