LAHORE: The opposition in Punjab Assembly on Thursday blocked finance minister Dr Ayesha Ghaus Pasha’s wind-up speech following a general discussion on annual budget for the year 2017-18 by pointing out quorum in the house.
The treasury could not complete the quorum -- neither in the first five-minute break nor after that of 15 minutes.
The quorum was pointed out by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Arif Abbasi and Nabeela Hakim Ali. Mr Abbasi remained in the house when Deputy Speaker Sardar Sher Ali Gorchani asked for counting of members in the house. As Mr Abbasi was also counting the number of members in the house, PML-N’s Farzana Butt used derogatory language against him.
Punjab government had directed the chief secretary and all administrative secretaries to be present on the assembly premises to attract the treasury members. However, the members were seen giving files to the secretaries for transfer-posting purpose and other issues before leaving the house.
Earlier in the day, the treasury and the opposition members discussed Punjab budget for the next fiscal. Occasional outbursts, emotional slogans and taunts continued by both the opposition and treasury members, particularly the women MPAs.
The day also saw a walkout by journalists against the brutal torture of a news channel reporter by some Lahore General Hospital officials and to express solidarity with the journalists who were not being paid salaries by their employers.
Law Minister Rana Sanaullah committed on the floor of the house that he would coordinate with the journalists’ body and help resolve the torture issue.
As PTI’s Shoaib Siddiqui reminded that the journalists were also protesting against non-payment of their salaries, while Eidul Fitr was approaching, Deputy Speaker Mr Gorchani asked the law minister to discuss and resolve both issues.
During the discussion, Ali Asghar Manda and Maulvi Ghiasuddin chided the opposition members for tearing down the copies of budget speech and throwing these on the floor of the house on June 2. They alleged that the act amounted to desecration as the copies carried Allah’s name and Quranic verses.
PTI’s Shunila Ruth said the Punjab government had allocated Rs635 billion as development budget, but allocated just Rs81 million for minorities and human rights. She said that budget was not even one per cent of Punjab’s development budget, while the minorities were five per cent of the province’s population. She demanded that the budget for minorities and human rights be at least doubled. She also asked the finance minister to explain the budget being given to minorities’ hospitals under the head of “awareness for human rights”.
Zulfiqar Ali Khan demanded allocation of budget for Kallar Kahar Lake, besides government intervention to save it from ‘qabza mafia’ (land grabbers).
Ali Raza Dareshak called for abolishing the entrance test after FSc, adding that the test was introduced to facilitate the A-Level students.
He regretted that the utilisation of budget for development schemes in south Punjab could touch just 20pc. He also asked whether poverty could be alleviated from the region with the allocated budget of Rs217 million.
Tamkeen Akhtar Niazi, Dr Najma Afzal, Ahmed Khan Bhachar, Dr Farzana Nazir, Mary Gill, Mian Rafique, Ahmed Shah Khagga, Gulnaz Shahzadi, PML-Q’s Khadija Umer, PTI’s Dr Murad Rass, Jahanzeb Khichhi, Raheela Anwar and Razzaq Dhillon also spoke.
The Punjab Assembly also granted two-month extension in the time for submission of reports by different Standing Committees.
Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2017