The Punjab Assembly continued its ‘general discussion’ on the provincial budget 2012-13 for the fourth day on Friday.
Legislators from both the treasury and opposition benches took active part in the discussion. The treasury members showered praise on the budget while the opposition members slammed it.
The opposition termed the document bogus and a bid to hide the corruption of the chief minister. They claimed that the government provided no relief to the labourers and the farmers.
They lashed out at the Punjab government for failing to come up with welfare projects for the people.
They maintained that the yellow cab scheme had bankrupted various national banks and now its continuation will lead to further losses.
They stated that instead of political point scoring on the energy crisis, the Punjab government should come up with a concrete plan to generate electricity so that the people could get rid of it.
Friday’s session commenced with a delay of an hour and 15 minutes against its 9 am scheduled time with Assembly Speaker Rana Mohammed Iqbal in the chair.
Taking part in the discussion, PML-N’s Tanvir Ahmed Nasir said the Punjab government had presented a balanced budget and made handsome allocations to the education sector, which will lead to its development.
He suggested that the green tractor scheme should be extended to less educated small-scale farmers instead of agricultural graduates.
He also said the government must announce projects for fertiliser manufacturing.
PPP’s Rifat Sultana Dar flayed the Punjab government for instigating the people against the federal government under the pretext of load shedding.
She also raised questions about the Rs 8 billion which were allocated in last year’s budget for the construction of power plants.
Another member Majida Zaidi said the Punjab government did not seem serious about running the province’s affairs as it borrowed Rs 15 billion on June 8-a day ahead of the budget announcement.
Amna Ulfat from the PML-Q League recalled that when former chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi left the government, Punjab had a surplus of Rs one billion, while the province had currently to pay a debt of Rs 500 billion.
Rahila Khadim Hussain suggested that the salaries of the government servants be increased by 30 percent.
Zobia Rubab, Mian Mohammed Rafiq, Mian Mohammed Shafi, Chaudhry Tanvir Iqbal and Fauzia Behram also took part in the budget debate.
‘Shahbaz plunged Punjab into darkness’: The Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) leaders said on Friday that Shahbaz Sharif had capped the power generation projects, thus plunging the people of Punjab in general and the industrial sector in particular, into darkness.
Taking part in the general discussion on the Punjab Budget 2012-13 in the provincial assembly, PML-Q MPAs Amna Ulfat, Syeda Majida Zaidi, Zobia Rabab Malik and Chaudhry Tahir Iqbal strongly criticised the budget and said Chaudhry Parvez Elahi was the only chief minister in the history of the Punjab to give the vision of “our water, our electricity”.
Contrary to this, they said the present anti-people CM had closed down welfare the projects launched during the Elahi’s tenure
Amna Ulfat said if education was among the priorities of the present rulers of the Punjab, then instead of distributing laptops as a bribe, the basic facilities missing from thousands of government schools in the province should have been provided.
She stated that 42 colleges established during the tenure of Chaudhry Parvez Elahi were non-functional, adding that the present chief minister had shut the doors of education on the children of the poor.
She added that the ‘Khadim-e-A’ala’, by closing down projects like the Quran Board and Seerat Academy, had spoiled his afterlife.
Tahir Iqbal Chaudhry said in the new provincial budget, the rural areas have been ignored.
He stated that if the performance of the Punjab government was satisfactory, the CM should not be afraid of holding the local body elections.
Syeda Majida Zaidi demanded that the ‘killer of people’ CM should give cheques to the people affected by the dengue fever and to grant representation to women in the Cabinet instead of merely talking about billions of rupees provided for the welfare of women.
