Daily Times

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MPA Mian Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman on Thursday accused the government of not providing copies of budget documents to lawmakers.

Speaking in the Punjab Assembly on Thursday during the ongoing budget session, he said the government wanted to hide financial facts from MPAs.

“The privilege of MPAs was breached by the government as it did not provide the five budget booklets. Therefore, a privileged motion should be brought in the House against the Finance Department. The provision of budget booklets is the right of MPAs and a set norm of this House, but we have not been given the volume 1 and 2 of both the development and non-development budget. The documents of Annual Development Programmes (ADP) are also missing,” he said.

Finance Minister Hashim Jawan Bakht said that the MPAs were given USBs containing all budget documents. However, Rehman insisted that opposition MPAs had not received any such USB.

The Finance minister then provided a USB through the assembly staff to Mian Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman.

Rehman said that the budget was just a pack of lies as a poor man didn’t get any relief in the budget and heavy taxes were imposed.

Earlier, Rana Mashhood of PML-N said that the government didn’t allow the sister and niece of Nawaz Sharif to meet him at Kot Lakhpat Jail.

Similar concerns were also raised by MPA Hina Pervaiz Butt who said that the personal physician of Nawaz Sharif was also not allowed to meet him in jail.

Law Minister Raja Basharat said that Nawaz Sharif was the only prisoner in Punjab who held regular meetings.

“The list of visitors is approved and sent by Nawaz Sharif himself. Today, he said that he did not want to meet anyone except for close family members. I am ready to present the jail record to the House,” said Raja Basharat.

The assembly session had started with a delay of more than one and a half hours. Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari chaired the session.

Moreover, the general discussion on budget continued in the Punjab Assembly where MPAs from both the opposition and treasury benches participated.

They demanded development schemes for their constituencies. Taking part in the discussion, the only Sikh MPA of Punjab Assembly Mahendar Pal Singh delivered his speech in Punjabi language. He praised the government for starting various projects for the Sikh community. “Baba Guru Nanak University will be established for the first time in the history of Pakistan. Prime Minister Imran Khan also deserves huge applause for his initiative of Kartarpur Corridor,” Singh said.

He further added that the Sikh community living in foreign countries would invest money in Pakistan which was a sacred place for them.

MPA Dr Mazhar Iqbal said that not a single development scheme had been given to his constituency despite the fact that his district provided wheat to all the other parts of the province. “The finance minister talked about regional equalization, but his claims are wrong because my constituency could not get any water or health related scheme. It will be a great injustice to give our budget to South Punjab Secretariat as we demand our own separate province,” he said.

More than two dozen MPAs including Syed Hassan Murtaza, Raees Nabeel, PTI’s Umar Tanveer, Nazeer Chohan, Aisha Nawaz Chaudhry, Momina Waheed, Shamsa Ali and Hina Pervaiz Butt, Bilal Farooq Tarar, Rana Mashhood, Mehwish Sultana, Sania Ashiq, Mehar Ijaz and Munir Masih participated in budget discussion. Later, the session was adjourned to meet again on Friday morning.