LAHORE, June 21: The opposition continued to criticise the provincial government for its “anti-people polices” on the final day of the budget debate in the Punjab Assembly on Wednesday. However, it made no objection when the treasury proposed elevation of MPAs’ status to that of MNAs’ with regard to perks and privileges.

Privilege committee chairman Nazar Farid Khokhar said he wondered that certain objections were made whenever there was a proposal to raise MPAs’ salaries and allowances.

“Neither the opposition nor the people have any objection to it and each MPA should be given a four-wheeler, Mr Khokhar said, asking Law Minister Basharat Raja to help them get salaries and other perks equivalent to those of MNAs’.

“A person can’t inspect the working of those having two or three cars on a bicycle,” he said and added that such incentives would help parliamentarians serve well.

Minorities’ Joseph Hakim Din and Pervaiz Rafique drew the attention of the house to the alleged forced marriages of Christian girls with Muslim boys and their conversion. They said the state must look into this as it had become a major problem for the Christians.

MMA’s Arshad Baggu on point of order said that it was not a matter of religions but waywardness. He said that media was responsible for the state of affairs, adding this was an outcome of Gen Mushrraf’s polices.

PPP’s Samilluah Khan informed the house that three sugar mills GDW, Tandlianwala and Phalia owned by federal industries minister Jehangir Tareen, federal commerce minister Humayun Akhtar and PML president Shujaat Husain, respectively, had evaded taxes on imported sugar and also illegally stocked it.

He said the increasing rate of inflation belied government’s tall claim that it was financially strong. Recalling the democratic periods of Nawaz Sharif and Benazir, he said that flour was available at Rs6kg, sugar at Rs18 and petrol at Rs22 and now their prices had soared to Rs18, Rs40 and Rs58, respectively.

Mr Khan said the common man was least concerned about the financial strength of the government. What matters him more is the availability of daily commodities at affordable prices, he said.

Holding President Gen Pervez Musharraf responsible for military operations in Wazirastan and Balochistan, the PPP parliamentarian said that the opposition would fight their case here in the Punjab Assembly. Political stability could only unite the center, he said.

Criticising the chief minister for not taking strong stance on Kalabagh dam, he said the Sindh chief minister had warned the prime minister that he would quit if the government did not withdraw its plan to build the dam. Contrary to his counterpart’s claim, the chief minister should also have announced that he would quit if the dam had not been constructed.

His comments on the president and the chief minister led to an uproar that ended on the intervention of the chair. Similar situation also occurred when PPP’s Raja Riaz on a point of order expressed good wishes to Benazir Bhutto on her birthday.

PPP’s Rana Aftab said figures presented on the growth and inflation rates were not correct. According to the budget, he said jobs would be provided to 3.5 million people whereas no industry was being set up and there were no job opportunities in the public sector as well.