LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly on Tuesday witnessed some spirited opposition to the Rs146 billion supplementary budget for fiscal year 2015-16, which the opposition parties thought was a proof of “bad governance and burden on provincial exchequer.”

The session started some 45 minutes behind the schedule and immediately took up the debate on the supplementary budget. The Chair invited Leader of the Opposition Mian Mahmoodur Rasheed to open the debate and he asked Shoaib Siddiqui to begin.

Mr Siddiqui said a major portion of the supplementary budget was spent on foreign tours for the medical treatment of the chief minister and some favourite bureaucrats. “People are suffering massive loadshedding but Rs8.4 million have been spent on a generator for Model Town residence of the chief minister. Hospitals are without ventilators but lavish expenditure is allowed on foreign tours. The opposition could have been happier if the government had demanded extra money for health or education. But this money is going to dubious development schemes, which is a matter of concern,” he said.

Mian Aslam Iqbal of the Opposition wanted to have a third-party audit of the entire spending of Rs146 billion because a number of development schemes in his constituency were fake. The budget includes installation of a tubewell which has not been made available. He pointed out that neither finance minister nor parliamentary secretary was there and said he was stopping his speech till their arrival. Both hurried back to the House.

Waseem Akhtar of the Jamaat-i-Islami demanded restoration of Bahawalpur province and hefty amounts for development. “No one can understand the priorities of the present government. It spent Rs540 million on agriculture and Rs54.50 billion on transport. No one is opposed to the development of cities, but other areas need some official attention as well,” he asserted and walked out of the house in protest against, what he called, ignoring the southern part of the province.

During the debate on the supplementary budget, some of the treasury members including Mian Rafique and Amjad Ali Javed from Toba Tek Singh said the presentation of the supplementary budget was a bad tradition and also criticised some of the polices of the government regarding improper use of development funds.

The minority members from both sides of the divide also berated the government failure to spend funds for development of minorities. Shahbaz Munchi, Shunila Ruth and Tariq Gill also participated in the debate and highlighted the issues of their community.

Javed Akhtar Ansari of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) warned the government of yet another sit-in if development funds were not given to the opposition members in next fiscal year 2016-17. His party colleague Nosheen Hamid asked the House to determine “terms and conditions” for the spending and approval of the supplementary budget for the sake of clarity in spending.

The House is expected to continue debating the supplementary budget on Wednesday morning.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2016