LAHORE: A divided opposition on Friday held a protest in the Punjab Assembly throughout the finance minister’s budget speech, irritating Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif who rarely attends the assembly.

Members of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, leading opposition party in Punjab, stood at their seats the moment Finance Minister Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman started the budget speech, and shouted slogans like “Go CM go” and “The budget is a pack of lies”.

While the PML-Q joined the PTI, PPP legislators remained calm. The PTI members were so charged up that one of them, Majid Niazi from Layyah, fell unwell. He was taken to the opposition leader’s chamber where he was attended to.

The opposition also tore copies of the budget speech. Speaker Rana Iqbal’s request to get back to the seats was also unheeded. The finance minister wore headphones to concentrate on his speech but took them off after a while.

The opposition’s protest ended when Rehman concluded his speech. The chief minister went up to him, shook hands and congratulated him for presenting the budget.

Opposition leader Mian Mahmoodur Rasheed said it was because of their strong protest that the chief minister could not “dare to” make a speech in the House.

According to the PTI, the PPP did not join its protest as it was supporting the PML-N indirectly. “Both PML-N and PPP are partners in hiding each other’s corruption,” PTI legislator Aslam Iqbal claimed.

PPP’s Faiza Malik said their members wanted to patiently listen to the budget speech. “We did not want to interrupt the minister during the speech,” she added.

At the business advisory committee meeting prior to the session, the law minister tried to convince the PTI against protesting. Sources said it was the chief minister’s wish that the finance minister make the speech uninterrupted. But the opposition did not oblige the chief minister.

Terming the budget anti-people, Rasheed said it was bad governance of the PML-N’s Punjab government that 61pc of the development budget of 2013-14 remained unspent.

“The people are dying of poverty and the Punjab government is spending billions on constructing roads and flyovers,” he added.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2014