LAHORE: Opposition chose Punjab Finance Minister Dr Ayesha Ghaus Pasha’s budget 2015-16 speech in the presence of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif in the Punjab Assembly on Friday a perfect occasion to register their protest for not getting development funds for the last two years.

Wearing black armbands, opposition parties Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, PML-Q and PPP, led by Opposition Leader Mahmoodur Rasheed, gathered in front of speaker’s chair and continued raising anti-government slogans till the conclusion of the finance minister’s speech.

Chief Minister Shahbaz who rarely comes to assembly sessions seemed not bothered by opposition’s sloganeering. Zaeem Qadri sat by the chief minister.

When the finance minister concluded her speech, PML-N MPAs stood up and started raising slogans “sher, sher” (lion, the election symbol of the PML-N). Opposition members retorted them with “go-Nawaz-go”.

“Our protest was not only against the denial of development funds to opposition legislators but also against the anti-people’s budget,” an opposition member told Dawn. She said denial of funds to the opposition MPAs meant that denial of development works to the hundreds of thousands of people living in their constituencies. “We hope that Shahbaz Sharif who hardly turns up in the house today would have taken notice of this matter,” she said.

Opposition Leader Mahmoodur Rasheed told reporters outside the assembly the Punjab budget 2015-16 was an utter disappointment for the people of the province. “The common man was expecting that he would get some relief in the budget but the government disappointed him,” he said, adding that he did know when the PML-N government would come out of this metro bus obsession. “Nothing substantial has been allocated for the sectors of health, education and law and order while huge funds has been diverted for metro bus projects,” he said.

Mr Rasheed said bureaucracy had prepared this budget as the finance minister had assumed the charge of her ministry a week before the budget. “The PML-N government has been doing this practice (of appointing a finance minister a week before the budget) for the last seven successive years,” he said.

The opposition leader said the Punjab government had failed to spend 53 per cent of the development budget of 2014-15 thus rushing to make development schemes only on paper to secure funds. “We will prove this and the government’s anti-people budget in the house with facts and figures,” he said.

PPP MPA Faiza Malik said the government had not taken the opposition on board in the preparation of the budget. “The economy of the country and Punjab is largely based on agriculture but no much importance is given to this sector in terms of funds allocation,” she said.

Speaker Rana Iqbal adjourned the session till Monday 2pm for debate on the budget.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2015

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