Daily Times

During the budget session on Tuesday, opposition lawmakers protested against the government for not establishing a separate South Punjab province.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MPAs criticised the government for once again neglecting South Punjab. “The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) didn’t fulfill its promise of establishing a new province for South Punjab in this budget. It has not allocated enough funds for the development of South Punjab,” they said.

PML-N MPA Sardar Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari said that the speaker should not let the budget pass until South Punjab province had been created by the government. “The government has not allocated any funds for the construction of dams for South Punjab in this budget. Taxes on agriculture have also been doubled,” he said.

“The people rightly term your government inept because you appointed one of the most effective former chief ministers of the Punjab the speaker. A new-comer has been appointed as CM of the country’s largest province,” said Leghari.

The remarks angered government MPAs who started chanting slogans against him and the speaker had to intervene to control the situation.

PML-N MPA Malik Khalid Mehmood Babar delivered his speech in Saraiki language after taking permission from Deputy Speaker Sardar Dost Muhammad Mazari. “No one from the Mazaris, Legharis and Makhdooms of South Punjab gave us a separate province despite the fact that they were in power for decades. Now, the CM and the finance minister are from South Punjab,” he said.

He was of the view that the PTI government made a promise to create the South Punjab province in its first 100 days. “However, they have failed to do so. Now, they are blaming Shehbaz Sharif for not establishing a new province. Shehbaz Sharif had approved setting up a girls’ high-school in my constituency during his last tenure. However, the ‘Tabdeli Sarkar’ converted it into a middle school,” he said.

Earlier, the session of Punjab Assembly started after a delay of one and a half hour from its scheduled time with Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi in the chair.

Makhdoom Usman Mehmood, a Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) MPA from Rahim Yar Khan, said that his Tehsil Sadiqabad had been ignored in the development schemes. “This is due to the reason that the PPP made a clean-sweep in this tehsil in last elections. Sadiqabad tehsil has a population of 1.5 million. However, it failed to get development schemes because its two MNAs and four MPAs belong to the PPP,” he said.

Fayazul Hassan Chohan said that the landlords of South Punjab were still unable to accept a gentleman such as Usman Buzdar as the CM of the province. He also criticised Awais Leghari. “His father Farooq Leghari had served as the president of Pakistan. However, he failed to do anything for the people of South Punjab. Now, his son should not criticise us. Awais made billions of rupees from the Punjab Forest Company by allotting illegal land,” Chohan said.

He said that the PML-N had allocated just 17% of the total budget to South Punjab. “We have allocated 35% of the budget for South Punjab. The Punjab CM has made it clear that this amount will only be spent on South Punjab. In the past, the share of South Punjab was spent on Takht-e-Lahore,” he said.

Chohan also criticised Hamza Shehbaz and his family. “The Sharifs have ruined the country. We now face economic problems due to them,” he said.

Chohan was appreciated by the treasury benches. However, opposition members chanted slogans against him.

MPAs from both sides spoke on the budget. They demanded development schemes for their constituencies and also highlighted the problems of their areas. MPAs Maulana Moavia Azam, Maulana Ilyas Chinioti, Raja Yawar Kamal, Rana Shehbaz, Sabeena Mehmood, Chaudhry Iqbal Gujjar, Shaikh Allauddin, Rahila Khadim Hussain and Mian Manazar Hussain Ranjha were among those who participated in the budget discussion. The finance minister and the officials from his department noted down their suggestions.

The session will resume on Wednesday afternoon.