Daily Times

LAHORE: Zulfiqar Ghori, member of the Punjab Assembly on the reserved seat for minorities, Wednesday disclosed that there was no record of Rs 110 million allocated for the uplift of minorities in the provincial annual budget for fiscal year 2016-17.

Ghori, member of ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) demanded the government to provide details of funds’ usage.

Participating in the pre-budget discussion in the Punjab Assembly, Ghori told the House that Rs 460 million were allocated for development of minorities in the annual budget. He said that the government had spent Rs 220 million on scholarships while Rs 130 million were equally distributed among seven legislators belonging to minorities in the House.

He said that there was no record of usage of funds meant for minorities’ uplift. He demanded his own party’s government to provide details of the development funds.

Earlier, giving an opening speech on the pre-budget discussion in the House, Punjab Finance Minister Ayesha Ghaus Pasha asked the members to give their positive proposals for the next budget and assured them that their suggestions would be accommodated.

Punjab Assembly session on Wednesday started one hour and 13 minutes late to its scheduled time at 10am with Speaker Rana Iqbal in the chair.

When the speaker announced to start the question hour session, opposition member from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Main Aslam Iqbal pointed out at incomplete quorum. The speaker adjourned the session but unfortunately the required quorum could not be completed even after an hour.

However, the speaker kept on saying that the quorum was complete but his attention was once again drawn to incomplete quorum by Arif Abbasi of the PTI, who said that there were only 89 lawmakers present in the House. But the speaker did not pay any attention to the MPA’s call which prompted the PTI members to stage a walk-out from the House. Later, opposition members belonging to the Pakistan People’s Party and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) also joined the PTI and staged a walk-out from the House.

Interestingly, it was the first time when the speaker did not send any delegation to bring back the annoyed opposition and continued the question hour session.

Pertinent to mention here is that lawmaker Syed Haroon Sultan Bukhari apologises to his female colleague Nighat Sheikh for making eerie remarks against her during the question hour session. Later, the speaker adjourned the session till today (Thursday).