The Punjab opposition on Friday called the Punjab budget 2011-12 a jugglery of words while expressing reservations over budgetary allocations, as the treasury claimed the budget would prove a millstone in the province’s history.
Opposition leader in Punjab Assembly Raja Riaz said budget was “a jugglery of words”, adding that the provincial government has accepted the failure of its policies by not allocating funds for the Sasti Roti and Sasta Ramzan Bazaar schemes.
He said all announcements made in the budget would prove empty slogans, as the track record showed that the Punjab Government had miserably failed to use up allocations in the head of the Annual Development Programme in the last three years.
Expressing his apprehensions on the announcement of loans for jobless youth, he said the provincial budget was an election stunt and it would not be implemented in the true sense.
Former Punjab finance Minister and PPP leader Tanvir Ashraf Kaira said the ADP allocations made in the budget would again not be used up and the masses’ expectations would not be fulfilled. He said the failure of the Food Stamp Scheme of the Punjab government was an example of inability of the PML-N and its leadership to handle such projects.
Criticising the yellow cab scheme, he said the PML-N had embezzled billions of rupees in kickbacks and commissions in the scheme when it was introduced by the party during its earlier regime. Senior Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi said the PML-N once again proved it was a party of Lahore and had no concern with the problems of the people in backward areas of the province.
Parliamentary leader of the PML-Q in the Punjab Assembly Chaudhry Zaheer said that yellow cab scheme would prove “hepatitis” for the economy of the province. He said that allocation of Rs 30 billion for secret schemes showed that during the fiscal year 2011-11, almost 60 percent of the annual fiscal budget was not disbursed.
All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) spokesperson Fawad Chuadhry said the budget proposals of the Punjab government were unsatisfactory and the failed yellow cab scheme was being launched again to benefit PML-N parliamentarians.
Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said the Punjab budget contained no mystery or jugglery of words.
He said the budget was merely one aspect of the overall economic affairs which contained annual estimates and expenditures.
The law minister said the yellow cab scheme for unemployed youths, health certificate scheme, educational allocations and planning for electricity generation would prove milestone for the province.
He said input was sought from parliamentarians in the pre-budget session, in which more than 73 MPs presented their proposals. Finance Minister Kamran Michel said the budget was ideal and the Punjab government had focused on providing relief to the common man, while the deficit and burden of financial targets would be met out by taking the elite into the tax net, increasing revenue resources and adhering to austerity.