Daily Times

Leader of the opposition in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz once again said that the Economy and NAB cannot be run side by side in the prevailing scenario. The country will be at great loss if rulers don’t find solutions to economic problems and they don’t stop believing in political victimization, the opposition leader said. He was speaking during the session of Punjab Assembly on Thursday while opening the debate on provincial budget.

The Punjab Assembly session started after a delay of more than two hours from its scheduled time with Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi in the chair.

Opening the discussion on budget, opposition leader said that the economic growth is in negative for the first time in 68 years. Hamza Shehbaz said that the accountability process is based on political victimization in Pakistan. It is worth mentioning here that Hamza is facing the NAB cases and he is in detention for last one year and attends the assembly sessions on the production orders issued by Speaker. Talking about the COVID-19 situation, the opposition leader said that patients are not getting proper treatment in the hospitals. The government ignored the advice of doctors to impose the lockdown timely and therefore we are facing this situation where even our MNAs, MPAs, police officials and doctors are losing their lives, he said. Mocking the Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, opposition leader said that he is looking the situation of COVID-19 from his helicopter. He also said that NAB is silent on the BRT project, Helicopter case against PM and Malamjaba case but only the opposition is being grilled. Addressing the Speaker Elahi, Hamza said that NAB is busy in political engineering and you (Elahi) also approached the court against it.

The opposition leader further said that the government allocated just 4 billion for COVID-19 and no relief was given to the people who are forced to pay 10,000 for COVID-19 testing. He was of the view that PML-N allocated a hefty amount of 30 billion when Punjab was his by the dengue outbreak and the government controlled it with comprehensive strategy. “The PTI government cannot hide behind the COVID-19 as the economy was already in bad condition before the virus came,” he said. Where are 5 million houses that you promised, he questioned. The opposition leader also criticized the government for abolishing the elected local governments as people are suffering a lot since then. The government is taking loans of billions but not spending it on the projects of public welfare, he said.

Law Minister Raja Basharat said that the treasury benches showed very democratic attitude today as the speech of opposition wasn’t interrupted by them but it is really unfortunate that ruckus was seen from the opposition benches the day when Finance Minister delivered budget speech. Speaker Elahi paid his gratitude to treasury benches for listening Hamza’s speech with patience. He was of the view that senior MPAs of opposition have already apologized for their attitude during the speech of finance minister.

Responding to opposition leader’s speech, Minister for Industries Mian Aslam Iqbal came down hard at the PML-N camp and its past regimes. He started his speech from corruption cases of PMLN and then asked about the killings of 14 innocent which had lost their lives in model town massacre. He said flour and sugar mafia belongs to PMLN camp and the opposition leader should put this question before them. “It is the PTI government that constructed new hospitals, made better infrastructure of health, education, police, and other institutions,” said Mian Aslam Iqbal. He said that the PML-N remained busy throughout its tenure in ‘looting and plundering’ the national exchequer. The atmosphere of the House turned heated when PMLN’s Azma Bukhari stood up and protested against the speech being delivered by the minister. “Our patience is running out,” she said while protesting in the House. Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi restrained Azma from intervening in the speech. ‘This is not the way and you are not doing good’, Speaker Elahi said. Azma then walked out from the House in protest.

The session will resume again on Friday afternoon (today).