Amid protest, Sindh presents deficit free budget 2019-20

KARACHI - Sindh Government presented the annual budget 2019-20 of Rs 1,217, 897.9 million with no fiscal deficit on Friday in Sindh Assembly, amid noisy protest by the Opposition Parties.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, who also holds the portfolio of the Finance Minister, presented the budget. Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani chaired the session.

The opposition MPAs, led by the Leader of Opposion Firdous Shamim Naqvi, carrying placards gathered in front of the Chief Minister and continued chanting slogans against Sindh Government and Pakistan People's Party till the end of his speech.

Sindh Government has increased the budgetary allocation for health sector by 19% and has earmarked
Rs.114.4 billion for fiscal year 2019-2020 against Rs.96.8 billion in 2018-2019.

Sindh Chief Minister in his budget speech here Friday said allocated amount for the new fiscal year would not cover medical education and shall be focused on series of healthcare programs coupled with establishment and upgradation health facilities besides strengthening of monitoring and surveillance of health systems as well as procurement of machinery and equipments.

Mentioning that health is a high priority, the Sindh CM said significant investments have been made over the years in the preventive program and primary healthcare largely through Peoples
Primary Health Initiative.

The provincial government was claimed to had made significant investments in Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre (JPMC), National Institute of Child Health (NICH) and National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) turning the three facilities into state-of-the-art centres.