Daily Times

There seemed to be an unwritten agreement between the government and opposition in the Punjab Assembly during the passage of the finance bill on Wednesday.

The proceeding of the assembly was wrapped up in just twenty minutes and the treasury passed the finance bill in a smooth manner without any hindrance by the opposition. The House started with a delay of more than an hour from its scheduled time at around 4:15pm with Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi in the chair, who adjourned the House at 4:35pm after the smooth passage of the finance bill – the most important legislation for any government.

As the House started after the recitation of Holy Quran and Naat, there were only 10 MPAs sitting on the opposition benches, while treasury benches were overcrowded, as the government didn’t want the collapse of the quorum at any point to ensure the passage of the finance bill. The MPAs of the government were present in large numbers because of the presence of Chief Minister Usman Buzdar in the House, who rarely attends the assembly proceedings.

Elahi took the finance bill clause by clause and the opposition didn’t show any resistance even at a single point, while ensuring the smooth sailing of the bill. The opposition had made tall claims before the start of the budget session that it would not let the government pass the budget easily because of its numerical strength in the House but it failed to give a tough time to the government who managed to pass the budget. The smooth sailing of the budget session, except for some hooliganism from the PML-N during the budget speech of the finance minister, raised several questions. It is pertinent to mention here that around 170 MPAs sit on the opposition benches in Punjab Assembly but still the government managed to pass the budget even at a time when the political temperature is on the rise in the country, as the opposition parties are holding APCs to devise a strategy to oust the government.

Sources privy to the developments told Daily Times that the smooth sailing of budget session could be possible due to the political experience of the speaker, who made it happen by timely issuing the production order of Opposition Leader Hamza Shahbaz just before the session. “There was an unwritten agreement between the opposition and the speaker that the opposition will ensure the smooth sailing of the budget if the speaker issues the production order of Hamza Shahbaz,” a source close to the developments said, while adding that the speaker would continue issuing his production orders even after the session to attend the meetings of the standing committees of the House.