Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Tuesday criticised the federal government for selling buffaloes kept at the Prime Minister’s House.
He said the federal government should keep the buffaloes and sell their milk to to earn money for the public exchequer.
Addressing a post budget press conference, the Sindh CM also condemned those speaking about the Kalabagh Dam, saying that it was a ‘dead horse’.
Murad Ali Shah said that Sindh just received Rs.49 billion from the federation, which had disrupted the budget of the province. He said that Rs.50 billion was kept for new schemes, while Rs.26 billion has been slashed.
The CM clarified that during his meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan, there was no mention of the issue of the Kalabagh dam.
He said the issue of transfer of officials from Sindh was raised in front of the PM, stressing upon him that officers of the Sindh bureaucracy should be appointed according to the inter-provincial rules. About the PM’s decision to grant citizenship, Murad said citizenship should not be given to illegal immigrants.
Earlier, he presented budget recommendations for the next nine months in the Sindh Assembly.
“We have curtailed the provincial development budget,” he said. “An earlier allocation of Rs598.9 billion for new schemes has been cut down by Rs26 billion.”
The Sindh CM added, “The development budget has been reduced due to financial issues.”
“In the previous year, taxes of more than Rs598.9 billion were accumulated by the Sindh government as the sales tax revenue was Rs100 billion,” he said, and continued, “958 schemes initiated as part of annual development programme will be completed this year.”
“Rs102.48 billion have been allocated for the Sindh Home Department and Rs2 billion for department’s development programmes.”
Published in Daily Times, September 19th 2018.