LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led Punjab government passed the provincial budget for the remaining eight months of ongoing fiscal year 2018-2019 in the absence of opposition on Thursday in the Punjab Assembly. The proceeding of the House lasted for just less than an hour as the treasury benches passed the Finance Bill 2018 in sheer haste amid the absence of the opposition while also approving all the 41 demands for grants. Although there were five cut motions from the opposition benches but not a single one was carried in the house due to the boycott of the session by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz-led (PML-N) opposition in the Punjab Assembly. Provincial Finance Minister Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakht unveiled the budget of Rs 2.02 trillion for FY 2018-19 on October 16 in the Punjab Assembly amid the severe protest and ruckus in the House. The Members of Provincial Assembly of PML-N boycotted the budget session of the Punjab Assembly in protest as Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi barred six lawmakers of the party to enter the house while accusing them of creating pandemonium in the House and attacking the staff of assembly during the budget speech of finance minister. The MPAs of PML-N including Leader of the Opposition Hamza Shehbaz held parallel ‘mock’ sessions at the stairs of assembly in protest throughout the budget session and termed the conduct of Speaker as biased and partial. They also demanded resignation of Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi as they said that he failed to run the House in an impartial way. Hamza Shehbaz also said that it is for the first time in the parliamentary history of Punjab that the discussion on budget was not opened by the opposition leader just because of the hostile conduct of Pervaiz Elahi in the House. Addressing the House during the session, Elahi congratulated the chief minister (leader of the house) who was also present in the house, for presenting a balanced budget. Elahi said in the House that people-friendly budget was presented in the Punjab despite the financial problems being faced by the province. Elahi said while adding that we have an obligation to support the CM. The government used to pay 50 percent electricity bills of farmers when we were in power from 2002-2008 in Punjab and now Prime Minister Imran Khan has broadened this package for farmers in the whole country and no prime minister has announced such a helpful package for farmers before, he added. In his speech, Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar said in the House that the government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) presented its budget in difficult circumstances where the poor people wouldn’t be burdened in the budget. The CM also lauded the conduct of Elahi in the House to run the assembly business and announced two months’ salary for the staff of Punjab Assembly secretariat as honourarium for their services during the budget session. The CM earlier chaired the meeting of parliamentary party of PTI before the session. The session was later prorogued for indefinite time period. Published in Daily Times, October 26th 2018.