The provincial government, amid the absence of the opposition, passed budget of Rs3.226 trillion for the financial year 2022-23 in the Punjab Assembly on Wednesday. Punjab Finance Minister Awais Laghari moved the Punjab Finance Bill 2021 which the government passed amid empty opposition benches. Chief Minister Hamza Shahbaz was also present in the house. The Punjab budget was marred by uncertainties and was presented on June 15 after considerable delay and at a different venue than the conventional one as the treasury and opposition benches failed to reach a consensus over convening a session. Laghari had unveiled the provincial budget for the fiscal year 2022-23, terming it a ‘pro-poor and pro-development budget’. In the budget, an amount of Rs1,712 billion have been kept for running expenditures while the total outlay of the development budget is Rs685 billion.