MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly on Thursday passed the budget for 2019-20, amounting to Rs121. 56 billion, including Rs 97 billion for recurring expenditures and Rs 24.56 billion for developmental activities.

Finance Minister Dr Najeeb Naqi presented a total of 32 demands for grant which were unanimously approved by the treasury benches in the absence of the opposition.

Many of the 11 opposition lawmakers had opted to stay away from the budget session for one or the other reason and the few who were present also staged a walkout on a trivial issue at the time of presentation of demands for grant.

House approves 32 demands for grant in absence of opposition members

Official sources claimed that the opposition lawmakers avoided moving cut motions after the government agreed to some of their demands regarding allocation of development funds for their constituencies at their discretion.

The house also accorded approval to the revised budget for 2018-19 to the tune of Rs109.175 billion, including Rs 22.275 billion for developmental activities and Rs86.9 billion for recurring expenditures.

Besides, demands for grant for the additional expenditures beyond the approved budget for the fiscal years 2015-16 to 2017-18 were also approved.

Earlier, speaking on the floor of the house, Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider said the opposition could have played a better role by giving its suggestions for the next year’s budget but it had wasted the opportunity.

Claiming that he had lived an honest and clean life, he asked Speaker Shah Ghulam Qadir to constitute, if the house wished so, an investigation team to probe his resources.

“Unlike other premiers, I am not claiming rent of my personal abode. I don’t have any personal vehicle and I am ready to be dragged on the streets from Muzaffarabad to Mirpur if corruption of a penny is proven against me,” he said, asking his critics to look into their own conduct.

He asserted that he did not believe in victimisation and earnestly wanted to make the accountability process more transparent.

“If I believed in victimisation, many opposition leaders would either have landed in jails or would be seeking pre-arrest bails.”

Mr Haider said he was satisfied that most of the pledges his party had made before the 2016 elections (in AJK) had been met.

“We are striving to fulfil the remaining commitments and will be successful in it long before the end of our constitutional term.”

Expressing gratitude to former premiers Nawaz Sharif and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi for providing adequate resources to AJK, he said he also held Imran Khan in high esteem as prime minister of Pakistan.

“But I have also told him plainly that my leader is Nawaz Sharif and I cannot compromise on it.”

He said he was grateful to PM Khan for giving clear directions for resolution of the problems caused by Neelum-Jhelum and Mangla power projects.

He paid tributes to his team for increase in revenue receipts.

“While in Pakistan, the revenue targets could not be met, here we generated more income than our target which speaks itself for the efficiency of my team.”

Later, the chair prorogued the session sine die.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2019