KARACHI: In a rare show of political unity in the Sindh Assembly on Friday, Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah assured the opposition members that the recommendations and suggestions they had forwarded during the pre-budget debate would be considered in the upcoming provincial budget.

Winding up the five-day pre-budget debate, the chief minister said that he had the entire record of everyone`s speeches and suggestions and assured the house that government was dedicated to addressing concerns.

He highlighted increased engagement inthe assembly, with 100 members participating in the pre-budget debate, appreciating the suggestions given by lawmakers.

Through a unanimously adopted resolution in the house, he pledged to document all suggestions for consideration in the Sindh budget for financial year 2025-26.

The chief minister said that the last year`s total budget was Rs3.056 trillion and as of Feb 28, 2025, nearly Rs2tre had been released, and Rs1.454tr had already been utilised with a significant portion of the employee-related expenses, including salaries and pensions.

`Currently, we are spending Rs100 billion per month on salaries, which highlights the significant financial responsibility of the government in ensuring the smooth functioning of public services,` he said.

The chief minister said that of the 1,153 development schemes, 1,035 with allocations under Rs50 million had received funding. He said that there were over 4,500 development schemes in the budget and added that 50 per cent projects had already completed and many more were near completion.

Referring to the opposition criticism for not utilising funds of uplift schemes, the chief minister said some members focused on just 25 of the 4,500 projects, creating a skewed impression of inactivity. `We`vespent Rs303bn on development,` he added.

He said that the provincial government had completed 196 new roads, investing about Rs53bn in the road sector, and improved 120 additional roads.

`No construction taking place for Cholistan Canal` The chief minister noted that there was currently no construction taking place on the Cholistan Canal.

`There has been no construction activity from Head Suleimanki to Marot, which is located 200 kilometres from the barrage,` he added.

Mr Shah said that at the Marot site, a 5,000-foot canal was found to be abandoned, and no further activity was observed.

`We will not allow anyone to take even a drop of our share of water from the Indus River,` he said and added that a strong protest would be launched if the controversial canal was constructed.

Leader of the Opposition in the PA Ali Khurshidi came hard on the provincial assembly for not completing several development schemes in time.

He mentioned a dozen schemes for which funds had been released but they were not utilised.

However, he held the provincial bureaucracy responsible for the non-utilisation of released funds.

He said that they did not have any doubt on the intentions of the provincial government, but bureaucrats were the main hurdle in the timely execution of the uplift projects.

Mr Khurshidi was of the view that the provincial budget should be prepared in consultation with all members irrespective of their sides on the aisle.

Referring to the protest of the treasury members over the canals issue, he said that the Pakistan Peoples Party had been in power for the past 17 years but Karachi was not being given its allocated daily share of 1,200 million gallons water.

`We all feel the pain of building new canals, but we should also feel the pain of Karachi`s water, he added.

He said that PPP member Jamil Soomro had made a demand for Larkana, the PPP`s stronghold, where a modern hospital was needed. `After listening to his demand, I decided not to say what I had planned in my speech,` he jibed.

He said that elected representatives kept roaming outside the offices of bureaucrats for approval of schemes. `The work approved by the chief minister cannot be approved by the bureaucracy,` he snarled.

The opposition leader also lamented that development schemes in the constituencies of opposi-tion members were not included in the budget.

Education Minister Syed Sardar Shah said that the education budget was being decentralised and all school funds would be given to the headmaster.

He said that over 83,000 teachers had been recruited on merit, out of which 65,000 were now working.

`249 street crimes occur daily in Karachi` Home Minister Ziaul Lanjar said that street crime in Karachi was a challenge for the provincial government as there had been 249 street crime incidents per day in the city.

`Today, there are 167 street crime incidents,` he said and added that there had been a 60pc reduction in street crime, and 50pcreduction in robbery and murder cases.

He said that the work on Safe City Project was in full swing. `So far, 1,300 cameras have been installed,` he added.

Jamaat-i-1slami member Muhammad Farooq demanded the inclusion of a development package of Rs500bn for Karachi in the upcoming budget.

He said that schemes should be included in the budget to solve the water problems of Shah Faisal Colony. The J1 member also demanded that the monthly fund of union committees should be increased from Rs1.2m million to Rs2.5m.

He said that funds should be allocated for the electric train corridor in the city as the Karachi Circular Railway project was not viable.

Later, the assembly session was prorogued.