The Pakistan Muslim League Punjab Parliamentary Party has termed the 5th budget of the Punjab government as a document of contradictions, adding it was not an ‘awam dost’ but a ‘Shahbaz dost’ budget.
These views were expressed during a special meeting of the Pakistan Muslim League Punjab Parliamentary Party, held at a local hotel. The Punjab Budget for 2012-13 was discussed in detail during the meeting.
Addressing the meeting, PML Punjab Parliamentary Party leader Ch Zaheeruddin Khan, Federal Advisor for Industries Muhammad Basharat Raja and Senator Kamil Ali Agha said by shutting down the pro-people development projects initiated by Ch Parvez Elahi, irreparable loss has been caused to the province and its people.
The PML leaders said those who were ruling Punjab were receiving 95 percent of financial assistance from the federal government and that the rulers were still playing the blame game in order to cover up their failures of the last four years.
Policy Working Group Chairman Rizwan Mumtaz Ali gave a detailed briefing to the members of the Parliamentary Party regarding the welfare-oriented projects initiated by the previous government and the billions of rupees in foreign investment that the Shahbaz Sharif government had terminated after coming into power.
Ch Zaheeruddin Khan said every year, 40 percent decrease in the utilisation development funds is observed, while 40 percent less revenue is collected as a result.
They said the situation was a sad reflection on the inefficiency of the present government. He stated that instead of spending whatever resources were available on health, education and poverty alleviation, these resources were wasted on flop ‘dramas’ like the Daanish Schools, laptop distribution schemes, sasti roti, Food Support and Green Tractor Schemes.
Federal Advisor on Industries Muhammad Basharat Raja said the differences between the governance of Ch Parvez Elahi and Shahbaz Sharif have been fully exposed. He said Ch Parvez Elahi had left Rs 100 billion in surplus funds in the province which is now under heavy debt.
He said despite the adoption of resolutions, no allocations have been provided in the budget for the new provinces of south Punjab and Bahawalpur or for the holding of local body elections.
He added that there was a contradiction between the statements and actions of the present rulers. He said out of the Rs 782 billion budget, Rs 710 billion are to be provided in one form or other by the federal government and that the allegation of the state’s discrimination against Punjab is merely a propaganda.
Senator Kamil Ali Agha said the budget for the fifth year has been based on the expectations and hopes of sharing in the divisible pool of resources, overdraft and domestic and foreign loans. He stated that just prior to the budget announcement, an over draft of Rs 15 billion and loan of Rs 11 billion was secured. He said this move was a negation of the tall claims made by the Punjab chief minister about not relying on foreign assistance.
The meeting was also addressed by Aamer Sultan Cheema, Col (r) Muhammad Abbas, Sameena Khawar Hayat, Seemal Kamran, Majida Zaidi, Dr Samia Amjad, Khadeeja Umar Farooqi, Dr Faiza Asghar, Tahir Iqbal Chaudhery, Engineer Shahzad Elahi, Syeda Bushra Nawaz Gardezi and Munawwar Manj among others. A strategy was also evolved regarding the general discussion on the new provincial budget.