LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly concluded on Friday budget debate for the next financial year as the chair prorogued the session sine die.

At least 46 lawmakers took part in the debate identifying the areas to be focused on during the upcoming budget.

Concluding the pre-budget debate, Finance Minister Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman assured the legislators of considering their proposals.

He said the education budget would be increased by 30 per cent in the next fiscal. He said more funds would be allocated for developing infrastructure.

“It has been decided to allocate Rs41 billion to the sector as a sum of Rs7.70 billion has already been released for the provision of missing facilities in schools of 11 southern Punjab districts.”

He said setting up of more basic health units, improvement in law and order, increase in agriculture production and provision of safe drinking water would be other priorities of the government in future.

Responding to queries by the lawmakers, he said supplementary budget was allocated to address security issues and to meet expenditures on visits by heads of foreign countries.

A sum of Rs12 billion had been earmarked for the provision of clean drinking water by setting up 1,479 filtration plants in 33 districts, he said.

A lawmaker of PTI staged a token walkout for five minutes against the chair for not allowing enough time to legislators to speak on the upcoming budget.

Earlier, a treasury member from Sargodha, Tahir Ahmad Sindu, exchanged hot words with the chair being held by Deputy Speaker Sher Ali Gorchani during the Question Hour.

Mr Sindu wished to raise an issue through a supplementary question not relevant to the original question. As the chair directed him to sit down, the MPA continued speaking although Mr Gorchani had got his mike switched off.

The MPA asked the chair “not to bulldoze the House (proceedings)” and vowed to resist any such move.

Mr Gorchani challenged Mr Sindhu to do what he could but the House would be run in accordance with rules of business. Rao Kashif, another MPA, made Mr Sindhu to sit down.

The defiant MPA again stood up when parliamentary secretary for the planning department Ahmad Karim Langrial received a chit from the official gallery while responding to a query, and objected to the practice of ‘spoon-feeding’.

Senior treasury member Chaudhry Muhammad Iqal, however, said that there was no illegality in this practice.

The chair got annoyed with the response of the planning department to a question on the plea that it was not related to the department.

Mr Gorchani warned the officials to take MPAs’ queries seriously and refer the questions to relevant departments.