Jam Kamal’s ignorance about budget opens Pandora’s box

QUETTA, June 26 (DNA): Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal has opened a
new Pandora’s box after admitting that he did not know who prepared the
provincial budget as he saw the document only hours before its
presentation.

Jam Kamal said neither he nor his cabinet knew anything about the
Balochistan budget. “We get the budget copies at 3pm on June 18 and then
we took them to the provincial assembly at 5pm for its presentation,” he
added.

The chief minister said his government, cabinet and lawmakers were
totally in the dark about the budget.

Jam Kamal said the Opposition’s protest during the budget session was
uncalled for. “If the budget was incorrect as the Opposition claimed
then the question arises if the government, cabinet and government
members did not know about the budget, only the opposition knew what was
in the budget then their protest was wrong.”

He further said the opposition should have let the government table the
budget, they should have read it in two-three hours, then they should
have raised an objection and caused a ruckus which makes sense.

Observers say now the question arises whether the Balochistan government
is unaware or powerless?

Who framed the budget and from where the figures added up would open a
new pandora’s box, the observers said.

An interesting situation was witnessed in Balochistan Assembly on
Saturday during the budget debate when the mike of Balochistan Chief
Minister Jam Kamal stopped working while he was making a speech.

This led to an interesting dialogue between the chief minister and the
speaker.

Speaker Abdul Qadoos Bizenjo taunted the chief minister, saying the
faulty mike is portraying rightly the three-year performance of the
provincial government.

The chief minister quickly responded without any hesitation and reminded
the speaker that keeping assembly’s mikes in order is the responsibility
of the speaker.

Bizenjo further said they had written to the C&W Department a number of
times complaining about the faulty mikes but it seemed their request was
not heeded.

Jam Kamal on his turn said that the speaker should have bought the mikes
from the market instead of waiting for C&W for mikes only.

Bizenjo said not just the mikes rather the whole system needed a repair.

Jam Kamal then said all the allies should collect donations for
repairing the faulty mikes of the assembly.

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