Daily Times

LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly on its last day of the session on Thursday passed the supplementary budget with majority in the absence of all opposition parties who had staged a walkout in protest.

Finance Minister Dr Ayesha Ghaus Pasha delivered her speech and confirmed that the total volume of the supplementary budget for fiscal year 2016-17 was only Rs 168 billion, adducing that the “next supplementary budget” was just Rs 63 billion, which was only 4 percent of the total volume of the annual budget, while the remaining amount was related to technical budget.

She also clarified the allegations levelled by the opposition about discriminatory allocation of funds among districts in the province, saying that they had made a provincial finance commission award committee to distribute development funds on transparent and purely merit bases.

The opposition was not satisfied over the claims, and disagreed with the budget statement. Its legislators Aslam Iqbal, Arif Abasi, Sadia Sohail, Shenila Ruth, and Sardar Hasan Akhtar Moakal rejected all the claims of the government of transparency and good governance by exposing some misuse or unnecessary use of public funds in the province.

Mian Aslam Iqbal of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) said that according to the budget statement, the government had given mobile phones worth Rs 1.3 million to its blue-eyed officers that was against the policy and a misuse of taxes of the poor masses.

He also claimed that the biggest financial scam of Danish Schools would be registered in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against the ruling Sharifs, as all its contracts were not awarded according to rules and regulations under any PC-I.

Arif Abasi said that talashi (search) of the ruling Sharifs had started and “time has come for their accountability before the masses as well as Allah Almighty.

The opposition members also said that Shahbaz Sharif, violating national laws, had personally obliged his Qatari friends by giving them gifts from the national exchequer, while entertainment of any international personalities was a subject of the federal government.

The issue on Panama leaks, Hudaibiya Paper Mills and the ruling Sharif brothers’ appearances before the JIT also echoed in the House from the opposition side, while treasury members fully backed their leadership.

Interestingly, the opposition pointed out the quorum twice but the treasury succeeded in completing it immediately to pass the supplementary budget within the scheduled time of the budget session.

The opposition announced a walkout when the chair stopped them from moving their second cut motion and to speak on it. The opposition did not return till the session was prorogued.