LAHORE: Punjab Assembly on Wednesday passed the Supplementary Budget for fiscal year 2015-16, with a total outlay of Rs 146 billion, with majority. All the four opposition parties sitting in the House opposed what they called a “costly” budget but failed to assert their point of view in this regard. Punjab Assembly session on Wednesday started one hour and 18 minutes behind its scheduled time under the chair of Speaker Rana Iqbal. After recitation of the holy verses of Quran, Finance Minister Dr Aysha Ghaus Pasha delivered her windup speech after strong criticism of her colleagues regarding issuance of heavy grants during the general discussion yesterday. Answering some of the points raised by the opposition members, who termed the supplementary budget as proof of poor governance, bad economic practice and wrong tradition, she told the House that it was a global tradition to readjust and reallocate the budget amounts as per necessary and unavoidable needs. She said that the government had used the amount demanded in the supplementary budget for serving the citizens in a better way, adding that around Rs 20 billion were used for sharing subsidy announced by the federal government in the Kissan Package while Rs 12 billion were spent of the subsidy provided to tenants for tube well electricity and general sales tax. Dr Pasha said the government had paid extra Rs 8 billion in the head of pensions following the Supreme Court’s decision while most other amounts were used to pay enhanced salaries of the government employees after their upgradation and regularisation. The finance minister denied all the claims of opposition regarding fake development schemes, especially in Lahore. Regarding payment of millions to senior lawyer and close aide of Sharif brothers Khawaja Haris when the office of Attorney General of Punjab was active in the province, she said under the Rules of Business, the government had a right to take services of any lawyer in any litigation or legal opinion on any case. She clarified that the Punjab government had no business with the Sahiwal Coal Project as it was entirely a project of Chinese investment and her government had not appointed any official in Sahiwal on huge salary. She also said that the Punjab officials and authorities had visited foreign countries to attract foreign direct investment, adding that the MPAs, who had visited abroad as delegates, spent from their own pockets. Dr Pasha on the occasion announced two months salary bonus for the Punjab Assembly staff for assisting the legislators in the budget session as per tradition. Later, the speaker prorogued the session for indefinite period. It is pertinent to mention that before starting the session, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Opposition Leader in the House Mian Mahmoodur Rashid submitted a resolution in the Punjab Assembly Secretariat’s Notice Branch in which he demanded Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to end his self-exile and return to Pakistan. He said that Nawaz Sharif should immediately reach Pakistan after recovery, as Pakistani people were facing severe problems of load shedding, law and order and inflation. He also said in the resolution that the nation would consider his delay in return to Pakistan as his lack of interest in the matters of the country. Furthermore, the House demanded the prime minister that he should end his self-exile immediately and tender his resignation to avoid any deferral in democratic process.