LAHORE: The issue of government’s failure to spend Covid-19 funds reverberated in the Punjab Assembly, when Rabia Nusrat raised it and provincial minister for finance Hashim Jawan Bakhat told the House that the Punjab government was looking at ways to spend it.

The minister told the House that Rs1.16 billion had been collected in the fund and the money was lying in an account of the CM Fund. The Punjab government had deducted one day salary of grade-1 to grade-16 employees, two-day salary of grade 17 to 19 and three- day salary of grade 20 and above.

“This money was collected as advance collection to deal with any emergency and deposited with the Chief Minister’s Fund for Covid-19 account. Now the government is planning to purchase vaccine with money or pay salaries of those who worked for Covid prevention,” the minister said.

Earlier, Ms Rabia Nusrat had taken the government to task for failure to spend funds. “People are dying on a daily basis and the government is sitting on funds. Covid has already peaked in the country. What is it waiting for to spend the funds?” she wondered.

The minister for finance also had hard time explaining increase in the price of roti which, according to Mian Naseer of the PML-N, is being sold at Rs10 to Rs15 in the city. “Has government taxed roti,” he asked the minister who responded in negative but said that price increased because of demand-supply gap.

Earlier, opposition leader Hamza Shehbaz who attended the session on production order, grilled the government for failing to perform. Speaking to media outside the assembly, he said the country, despite having agricultural base, was importing everything. “I have always said that this government needs to perform to survive. During the PML-N, Pakistan stood at 117 on corruption index but has dropped by seven points in the last two years. This government would leave long tales of failure.”

Those who promised to transform the country in 90 days are now saying that even the five-year tenure is very less for them to perform. This government has only one-point agenda i.e. political vendetta. Crying “qabza mafia,” it launches operations but only against workers of the PML-N. The PTI houses including Banigala are regularised. The only thing it has done is to arrest Shehbaz Sharif and Khwaja Asif. Country’s economic policy is taking it into deep ditch of despair. Foreign policy is isolating the country. It is being fined internationally and its planes are being confiscated, what else proof of its failure are needed? It has failed even to remove waste from the city roads. Lahore is sinking in its own waste.

“Revenge is being sought in the name of accountability. There has not been proof of even a pie against me or Shehbaz Sharif but both are incarcerated only to satisfy revengeful impulses of some in the PTI. This is worst kind of governance,” Hamza told the media.

The House was later adjourned till Monday afternoon.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2021