Daily Times

LAHORE: It was a hard day for the provincial government in the Punjab Assembly on Tuesday, as some of the treasury lawmakers criticised the government for not entertaining their budget proposals.

Participating in the budget debate, two of the treasury members, including Masroor Jhangvi, railed against the government for not accommodating his proposals regarding public welfare projects, including establishment of a hospital, university and repair of choked sewage pipeline, in Jhang district.

He said that the pre-budget discussion, budget statement and the budget debate was a joke with the innocent people of the province as the government did not entertain their demands. He added that he would not tolerate government’s oppression.

He said people were hoping against hope that the government would sanction funds for construction of a hospital, university and maintenance of the 30-year-old sewage pipeline in Jhang but the government totally ignored their demands.

He said that the people of Jhang had been denied their rights for the last 27 years. He said that there the assembly should be dissolved if people had to take to streets to press the government to accept their genuine demands.

Later, the lawmakers boycotted the remaining session when his mike was muted.

Some other treasury member also opposed the annual budget for the fiscal year 2017-18 during the budget debate.

MPA Malik Javed Awan from Khushab disclosed that he had given dozens of suggestions in all the last five budgets presented by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government in Punjab but unfortunately no one proposal was entertained.

Malik Abbas, another lawmaker, from Multan said that the government did not allocate funds to rural areas as proposed by the members.

Meanwhile, MPA Waheed Gull of the ruling party criticised the opposition benches for their “anti-government” policies. He accused the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for leaking a photo of Hussain Nawaz, son of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, during interrogation by the Joint Investigation Team (PTI) probing the Panama leaks on the instruction of the Supreme Court. He too boycotted the proceedings.

Members from minority seats, including Zulfiqar Ghori and Tariq Gill, also delivered their speeches and demanded the government to make double the funds allocated for minorities in the budget.

On Monday, Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed strongly criticised the government for presenting “anti-poor” budget and said that the daily expense of the Governor’s House and the Chief Minister’s House was Rs 2.8 million.