The female MPAs of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid, while taking part in the general discussion on the Punjab Budget 2012-13 in the Provincial Assembly on Thursday, have termed it an anti-people document and lashed out against its various provisions.
Seemal Kamran called the finance minister a minister on deputation and said the rapid bus project is a copy of Chaudhry Parvez Elahi’s mass transit project. “We have been hearing a lot about plagiarised versions of films and now plagiarism of development projects is also at its peak,” she said.
She stated that the so-called Khadam-e-A’ala, who was talking a lot about Information Technology, should also tell where would Sharif be if her leader Chaudhry Parvez Elahi had not constructed the IT Tower?
She termed the Punjab chief minister an enemy of footpaths and greenbelts and said he is running the ‘Pinjaro Bus’ on Ferozepur Road for which hundreds of families are being deprived of their properties and businesses.
She added that so far Rs 31 billion have been allocated for the ‘Pinjaro Bus’ alone, whereas the money could have been used to provide transport facilities in 31 districts of the province.
She stated that there is nothing in the Punjab budget except the short stories of Ashiana and uncalled for criticism of the federal government.
She said Shahbaz Sharif is inscribing his name on the plaques of the development projects initiated during the tenure of the Elahi’s so that he could go down in history as ‘the plaques chief minister’.
Kamran also said huge foreign investments were coming to the province through important development projects initiated by Parvez Elahi like the Mubarak Centre, Sports City and Mass Transit Train and that Sharif, by closing down these projects, had caused huge losses to the province and its people.
In the context of the claim made by Malik Riaz Hussain about providing Rs 85 crores for the Ashiana Housing Scheme, she asked where was the money taken from the people for the houses going, when the machinery had been provided by others and the land is owned by the government.
Participating in the general discussion, Humaira Owais Shahid said the farming community has been totally ignored in the new provincial budget. She said only 43 percent of the funds allocated for the Annual Development Programme were utilised, which was a reflection on the poor performance and failure of the provincial government.
She said the Punjab government is protecting the interest system adding that if it is not discarded, the economy will never be able to stand on its own feet.
She was critical of the bureaucracy and said that the present bureaucracy of Punjab did not want to work because it has no capacity to do so. She stated that instead of the farmers and labourers, the middlemen are being protected in Punjab.
PML-Q ladies unsheathe their claws, rip into Punjab budget
