2 lawmakers participate in 'smooth' budget debate in PA.

Byline: Tahir Siddiqui

KARACHI -- The Sindh Assembly on Wednesday continued discussion on the provincial budget for a fourth consecutive day with members from the treasury and opposition benches mainly lambasting each other's leaderships.

Though bitter criticism, serious accusations, jibes, claims and counter-claims echoed in the house during the speeches, the proceedings remained smooth and uninterrupted as 2 lawmakers spoke for over six hours without any major interruption by any member as was witnessed during the past three days.

While most of the members from the two sides opted to come down heavily on each other's parties, only a few referred to the development works and issues of their respective constituencies in the context of the budget.

At the start of the proceedings, Grand Democratic Alliance's parliamentary party leader Hasnain Mirza expressed his concern over rowdiness from both sides in the house on Tuesday. Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani said that he did not want to say who was right or wrong.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf's parliamentary party leader Haleem Adil Sheikh said that every member of the assembly was bound to maintain sanctity of the house.

MMA member raises issue of up to 4-hour-long power outages in metropolis

The parliamentary affairs minister rose to ask for an apology from the opposition members for passing below-the-belt remarks on his party's female members during the proceedings on Tuesday.

Leader of the Opposition Firdaus Shamim Naqvi requested the treasury and opposition members to remain calm and show tolerance.

He also asked the chair to extend time for debate on the budget so that every member could express their views.

Sindh be paid expenses on three hospitals

Discussing the budget, Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho said that as many as 78 people contracted coronavirus due to distribution of money under the Ehsaas programme.

She said that the provincial government had spent billions of rupees on the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD), National Institute of Child Health (NICH) and Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) which the federal government wanted to take over.

She said that if the centre wanted to take these hospitals under its control, the provincial government should be paid all the expenditures incurred on their uplift.

She also informed the lawmakers that the government was conducting coronavirus test free of cost, adding that each test cost Rs4,. 'Private hospitals are...

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