Turning up for the first time in the 11th Parliament yesterday, opposition PPP/C MPs denounced the 2015 Budget as “full of fluff” with former Housing Minister Irfaan Ali leading the charge but his accusations drew heckles from the government side which repeatedly invoked the PPP’s failures during its 23 years in office.
In a boisterous first session as debate on the 2015 Budget kicked off, Speaker of the National Assembly Dr. Barton Scotland was forced to caution parliamentarians several times as the heckles and jeers drowned out Ali whose statements from the beginning drew swift rejoinders from government parliamentarians in the first sitting of the National Assembly since the May 11 general elections that saw both government and opposition parliamentarians present.
The PPP had boycotted previous sittings of the House and finally trooped in yesterday as the Budget 2015 debate began. Minister of Finance Winston Jordan presented Budget 2015 to the National Assembly last week. With notable members such as