Daily Times

LAHORE: Amid a strong protest by the opposition in the Punjab Assembly, the provincial government proceeded with the budget presentation on Monday.

A supplementary budget for 2017-18 with demand of extra grants of Rs 85 billion was also approved in the session.

All four opposition parties continued their protest against PML-N quaid Nawaz Sharif for his recent statement on the Mumbai attack. At one moment, they surround the desk of the speaker for not allowing them to move a resolution against the statement.

Meanwhile, Provincial Finance Minister Dr Ayesha Ghous Pasha completed her budgetary speech, mentioning milestones of the government.

Though, before giving the floor of the House to the finance minister, the speaker had allowed Leader of the Opposition Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to speak on a point of order, but he hasted to revoke the permission.

The joint opposition benches urged the speaker to allow them to move their resolution over the matter. They chanted ‘Hang Nawaz Sharif’, ‘Nawaz Sharif is an Indian Agent’, and ‘Friend of Modi is traitor and unacceptable’. After the adjournment of the session, the joint opposition also held a protest.

Dr Pasha, while addressing the House and presenting the supplementary budget, said that ‘Punjab speed’ had become the international identity of the province due to the policies of the government, and economic growth rate in the province was higher than that in other provinces of the country.

She said Punjab had already added 550 megawatt electricity to the national grid, adding that development budget in Punjab was increased three time in the last five years. She said a reputable NGO, PILDAT, had certified that performance indicators in Punjab were much better other provinces.

The minister said that in view of the Article 126 of the Constitution, her party’s government in Punjab was not presenting an annual budget for 2018-19, and leaving the task for the next elected set up. She also expressed hope that people of Punjab would continue their confidence in the ruling Nawaz League for next term as well.

Later, the finance minister spoke to the media outisde the Assembly premises. She said that when her party come to power, they were facing two major issues of power outages and terrorism. On both fronts, she said, “We have succeeded to overcome the crises.”

She said that her government remained its focus on setting up power plants and projects like the Orang Line Metro Train (OLMT). She added that though they had completed power plants successfully but some hurdles remained in the OLMT, so it was yet to be completed.

According to the supplementary budget statement, the government has spent Rs85 billion more than the allocations. the major sectors in which allocations have been revised are physical infrastructure (roads and bridges – Rs 19 billion), education (Rs19 billion) and healthcare (Rs 17 billion). In law and order, the government spending exceeded initial allocation by Rs 5 billion; in agriculture by Rs 7 billion; in irrigation by Rs 2 billion, and in land reclamation Rs 2 million.

Published in Daily Times, May 15^th 2018.