KARACHI – Resuming their discussion on the provincial budget for the next fiscal year in the Sindh Assembly on Wednesday, lawmakers opined that a forceful action against criminals along with cancellation of arms licences for deweaponisaton was only solution to bring back peace in Karachi.
Taking pat in the debate, Rana Abdul Sattar, a PML-F parliamentarian, said while the MQM itself was part of the government, its walkout was quite “exceptionable”.
Underlining the need for a forceful action against criminals, Sattar demanded that arms licences be cancelled and weapons be submitted with the government under a seven-day deadline. “Afterward, every house in Karachi be searched in order to make the city arms-free,” opined the PML-F leader, saying that “instead of an operation, a surgery was required to restore peace in the city”.
The PML-F lawmaker said the slogans of Muhajir province and Sindhu Desh were meant to befool the masses. “Sindh will remain intact forever. If the Urdu-speaking people do not think that they are Sindhis, they should turn back to India.”
Speaking about the budget, Sattar said that the town municipal administrations did nothing during the last four years, as all development funds were misappropriated.  He said the education and health sectors were on the verge of devastation because doctors were not ready to sit at hospitals and teachers not ready to teach students. “Similarly, the roads damaged during the heavy rainfall last year, have still not been repaired,” he said. Sattar alleged that the rampant corruption devoured nearly 40 per cent of development funds. He also suggested to the government to increase MPAs’ priority funds to Rs100 million from Rs60 million, for each parliamentarian.