Daily Times

The Punjab Assembly on Tuesday passed 41 demands for grants worth Rs 1,800 billion with a simple majority.

The treasury members also managed to defeat five cut motions introduced by the opposition lawmakers.

Out of the opposition’s five cut motions, only three could be debated. The remaining two lapsed due to the expiry of time allocated to discuss the cut-motions.

The opposition could not stop the passage of the demands for grants due to the political acumen of Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi.

Speaking on the cut motion on agriculture, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) parliamentary leader Syed Hassan Murtaza said that the farmers of Punjab were paying a heavy price in the name of taxes. “Therefore, the government should decrease the amount of taxes imposed on farmers,” he said.

He was of the view that the government should introduce new seeds in the agriculture sector. “The government should focus more on research and should introduce modern techniques to help farmers. The government is pressurising the workers of PPP to switch their loyalties by registering baseless FIRs against them and using intimidating methods through police. We have proof of the government’s tactics,” Hassan Murtaza said. He also demanded to constitute a House committee to investigate the matter.

PPP accuses govt of registering FIRs against opposition lawmakers

Chaudhry Iqbal Gujjar, an MPA from Gujranwala, also demanded modern seeds for the farmers to help them increasing their yields. He was of the view that the export of rice had been stopped. “This affects our farmers a lot because a large number of them are dependent on the rice exports,” he said.

Agriculture Minister Nauman Langrial said that the government had introduced a strong agriculture policy. “A huge sum of Rs 10 billion has been allocated for agriculture in the development budget. The previous government had only allocated Rs 7 billion for the purpose,” he said.

He said that 0.25 million farmers had been given interest-free loans. “It is the highest figure in the history of Punjab. As many as five crops have been harvested in the Punjab during our tenure. The government announced good support prices for all of them,” said the minister.

Later, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Raja Basharat said that the opposition had miserably failed to stop the treasury during the budget session. “This is evident from today’s proceeding. For the first time in the history of Punjab Assembly, all the demands for grants were passed in just an hour. The opposition could debate only three cut motions,” he said. He further added that the opposition couldn’t resist the budget because it was purely meant for the welfare of public. “Therefore, the opposition has nothing left to criticise. The opposition leader used to speak on the budget for two or three days in the past. However, this time the opposition leader only spoke for few minutes. The opposition is not interested in getting relief for the public. Their only focus is on their own cases,” he said. After the passage of demands for grants, the session was adjourned till Wednesday.