Opposition slams Balochistan budget over ‘no consultation’

QUETTA: Opposition members in the Balochistan Assembly on Monday contended that the recently debated Rs1.28 trillion budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year was formulated without their consultation and lacked any mega projects in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP).

The assembly session, presided over by Speaker Abdul Khaliq Achakzai, continued late into Monday night, concluding the debate on the budget.

During the session, opposition’s legislators urged the government to ensure an equitable distribution of PSDP funds for development schemes suggested by them.

They identified corruption as the province’s most significant challenge, warning that without effective controls, the substantial budget would be squandered.

“The biggest issue of the province is corruption and if corruption is not controlled, the biggest budget of the province would go to waste,” opposition members said.

Conversely, members of the treasury benches lauded the budget, asserting that its significant allocations would help alleviate the province’s backwardness. They refuted the opposition’s claims of non-consultation.

“CM Bugti had taken all coalition partners and opposition parties on board on the budget and provided more funds for the opposition members’ constituencies,” treasury members said.

They also noted it was “the first government against whom no protest was witnessed outside the assembly during the budget session”.

Former chief minister Dr Malik Baloch highlighted pressing provincial and international concerns.

“Iran is facing Israeli aggression and in this hard time Pakistan should extend all help to Iran [but] Pakistan should not jump into this war,” he said.

He identified corruption and price hikes critical domestic issues, noting that “in Turbat chicken is being sold at Rs1000 per kg”.

Dr Baloch said: “The government must take steps for controlling corruption. Otherwise the huge budget will be lost.”

He also addressed the issue of missing persons, saying: “The missing persons issue is important and the state should play a positive role in resolving it and also release all arrested political leaders.”

Dr Baloch claimed schemes he proposed for the PSDP were excluded, calling it “unfair to the people of my constituency”.

Provincial Minister for Public Health Engineering Sardar Abdul Rehman Khetran described the budget as “a balanced document”, affirming the government’s commitment to improving facilities in health, education, and other sectors.

Minister for Communication and Works Mir Saleem Khosa said: “No negative thing was included in the budget,” and added that “the government has provided more funds for the opposition constituencies”.

He further remarked that the current administration “had released 98 percent PSDP allocations before the end of financial year”.

Other members, including Mir Asghar Rind and Raheela Durrani, also characterised the budget as balanced, reiterating that the chief minister had engaged with all coalition partners and opposition parties during its preparation.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2025