LAHORE, June 25: The Punjab Assembly passed here on Friday the budget for 2004-05 after rejecting all cut motions moved by the members of the opposition.

The house took up 42 demands for the grant of Rs218 billion, out of which only two - education and health - were discussed. Others were adopted by the voice vote.

The opposition members rejected demand for allocation for the health sector, saying the government had failed to improve conditions of hospitals and basic health units despite making tall claims. The dialysis and CT scan machines at several hospitals were out of order and poor patients being deprived of free medicine and emergency cover.

They demanded that licences of fake drug companies should be cancelled and drug testing laboratory system improved in the province.

Punjab Health Minister Dr Tahir Ali Javed defended the demand for the grant, saying the government had decided to upgrade all the tehsil headquarters hospitals. The hospitals of the Jampur, Jaranwala, Arifwala and Rajanpur tehsils had already been upgraded and 11 more of those would be upgraded during the next fiscal.

The government, he said, had allocated Rs1.2 billion for the improvement of drug testing laboratory and establishment of two laboratories in Lahore and Multan. He added that it had also decided to start audit system at all the profession hospitals.

The minister said Rs120 million would be spent on improving the facilities of radiation for the treatment of cancer patients and Rs1 billion on the provision of free medicines at the government hospitals. Well-equipped emergency ambulance units were being introduced to provide better service to the patients, he said.

Punjab Education Minister Mian Imran Masood defended the cut motion on education, and said the government was working on districts with low literacy rate.

Criticizing the opposition, he said it was trying to create political instability in the country. He assured the house that the government would ensure provision of all missing facilities at schools in the next four years. All middle schools would be upgraded, he said.

The government had allocated Rs800 million for the provision of free textbooks to the students from classes one to eight during the next financial year.The opposition declared the Punjab chief minister's 'Vision 2020' a fraud and said priorities had not been mentioned in it.