Daily Times

The government on Friday passed the Punjab Budget for the Fiscal Year of 2020-21 amid the walkout and protest of the opposition parties led by the PML-N. All the suggestions and recommendations of the opposition were rejected as not a single amendment was made in ‘The Punjab Finance Bill 2020’ as it was introduced in the House by finance minister Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakht. The government employees couldn’t get the salary raise of even a single penny in the budget despite suggested by the opposition repeatedly to do so. The government brought heavy agenda item on Friday as it has 6 other bills and extension in three ordinances except for the one Finance Bill.

As per the details, the session of Punjab Assembly started after a delay of more than two hours from its scheduled time with Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi in the chair. As the resolution was moved seeking extension in the time duration of ordinances, the MPAs of opposition started protesting outside the dais of Speaker while demanding to postpone this legislation and urged the government only to bring finance bill because it was the budget session and therefore no other legislation should be brought in the House. The opposition termed it rigging and against the rules while the Speaker didn’t pay any heed to protesting MPAs. “Cheeni Chor, Atta Chor, Petrol Chor and Medicine Chor” slogans were raised by the Opposition before they walked out from the House. The opposition didn’t return back to the House and all the legislation was made in their absence. The Government passed Kohsar University, Murree Bill 2020, Baba Guru Nanak University Nankana Sahib Bill 2020, The Punjab Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2020 and The Punjab Village Panchayats and Neighbourhood Councils (Amendment) Bill 2020 along with the one The Punjab Finance Bill. Three ordinances were also extended for another 90 days including The Punjab Prevention of Hoarding Ordinance 2020, The Punjab Private Educational Institutions (Promotion and Regulation) (Amendment) Ordinance 2020 and The Code of Civil Procedure Punjab (Amendment) Ordinance 2020.

The opposition MPAs also delivered fiery speeches outside the House while saying that the government is bulldozing the legislation process. MPAs Samiullah Khan, Rana Mashhood, Syed Hassan Murtaza and Malik Ahmed delivered speeches outside the House.

Talking to Daily Times, PML-N MPA Samiullah Khan said that it seems that the government brought the business of whole year today during the passage of finance bill that is really unfortunate as there should only be the finance bill on the agenda item because it was the budget session. “I wanted to speak in the House over this issue but couldn’t get the floor by the chair and therefore we decided to stage walkout against this undemocratic attitude of the government where the voice of opposition is suppressed,” said MPA Samiullah Khan. We also wanted to raise the issue of salary increase of government employees as they couldn’t get even a single penny increase in the budget this year by the Punjab government, he said. The government of Gilgit Baltistan increased the salaries of government employees over the direction of PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif because our party was ruling there but Punjab didn’t increase the salary of government employees, he added.

Earlier, the Punjab Assembly unanimously passed a resolution regarding writing down and speaking words Khaataman Nabiyeen with name of Hazrat Muhammad PBUH.

The session was later adjourned to meet again on Monday afternoon.