Despite the fact that Tuesday, April 29, was the last date for the submission of proposals by city council members regarding the City-District Government Karachi’s (CDGK) Rs47,552.06 million draft budget for 2008-09, the opposition has distanced itself from the finalisation of the budgetary document.

The Finance and Planning Committee of the council was given the task to receive proposals from the city council members and submit a report based on these proposals to the house convenor (the city Naib-Nazim) by May 2. The next session of the city council will be held on May 5 to consider and debate upon the proposals of the draft budget document.

Leader of the opposition in the council Saeed Ghani told The News on Wednesday that, like the previous year, the opposition members of the council have not submitted any proposal for the finalisation of the budgetary estimates of the CDGK for the new fiscal year. Moreover, Ghani said that, in the past, the budgetary proposals of the opposition carried no value as the treasury is used to passing the budget on the basis of its majority in the house without reviewing the estimates.

“The budget does not seem beneficial as the development works in a number of opposition-administered union councils in the city remain unfinished for a long time due to the non-release of the development grants from the CDGK,” said the council opposition leader.

He said that, although the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)-led government had initiated a process of reconciliation with various political quarters, the opposition in the council had several reservations over the conduct and policies of the incumbent leadership of the CDGK. He also mentioned that the opposition would not normalise itself and abstain from protesting inside the house till its long-pending reservations are not allayed in a befitting manner.

Rafiq Ahmad, the leader of the opposition of the Al-Khidmat, said that the opposition’s nominees for the house committee of finance and planning had already resigned from the committee when the opposition members tendered resignations from the monitoring committees to protest against the manhandling incident inside the house against the opposition on April 26, 2007.

He said that, in the past years, the incumbent CDGK leadership had gotten its budgets approved using its majority in the house, without adopting a procedure which required merit and transparency. “For the last two years, the city’s union councils led by the opposition Nazims have been desperately waiting release of their due development grants and, in such a situation, where several development works in the city stood unfinished halfway, it is a wiser option for the opposition to abstain from the formality of budget finalisation,” said the Al-Khidmat group leader.

Chairman of the house finance and planning committee Mirza Afaq Baig confirmed that, till April 29, the last date for submission of budgetary proposals, no recommendation had been received from any of the member from the opposition.

He said that the members of the committee had already started sorting out the proposals for the preparation of the committee’s report regarding the draft budget. Meanwhile, he said, the committee had co-opted two more members from the treasury benches for its work related to the draft budget so that the committee would ensure timely completion of its work regarding finalisation of the proposals.