LAHORE: Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari kept Punjab Assembly proceedings suspended for 15 minutes on Friday over absence of both the finance minister and the finance secretary as the house resumed debate on budget for the second day here on Friday afternoon.

Mr Mazari got annoyed when the opposition pointed out the absence of the minister and the secretary during the debate on the budget. Instead of 15 minutes, the proceedings restarted after 40 minutes when Minister Hashim Jawan Bakht joined the debate.

The chair asked if the finance minister won’t take the debate seriously, how one could expect this from the ordinary lawmakers and directed the minister and the departmental secretary to ensure their presence in the house throughout the budget session.

Muhammad Moavia Azam Tariq of the Pakistan Rah-e-Haq party (Jhang) began the budget debate and hoped making the budget interest-free from next year. He argued that the budget was (mostly) made of taxes from Halal (lawful) income of the citizens but the government would make it Haram (illegitimate) by including the revenue generated from interest and alcohol business.

With reference to the locust attack, he said that all were talking about spray of pesticides and raising awareness among the farmers against the pest but none was mentioning that payment of Ushr was another way to seek protection from natural disasters and demanded making Ushr system functional at the government level.

PML-N leader Sardar Awais Leghari recalled that Imran Khan had stated that Kashmir issue would be resolved if Modi won the polls. But, he regretted, the Modi government was going to complete its second year but the foreign minister never took up the India-held Kashmir issue with the Indian counterparts.

He said subsidy worth billions of rupees was given to sugar and flour mafias instead of diverting these funds directly to 5.2m farmers in the province.

Mr Leghari lamented that poor allocation was made for education infrastructure worth Rs4,000bn in the budget and likewise apportionment of funds for the health sector was not also up to the mark though the government had been boasting of giving special attention to the two sectors.

PPP Parliamentary Leader Hassan Murtaza said the budget was beyond the comprehension of the general public. He admitted that the opposition benches had taken the wrong step by protesting during the budget speech delivered by the finance minister but regretted that Industries Minister Mian Aslam Iqbal also didn’t behave well with the opposition during debate on the budget last day.

He taunted the government servants, saying if they were satisfied with the ‘change’ as the PTI didn’t give them any raise in salaries while the PPP government in Sindh enhanced salaries by 10pc. He demanded the Punjab government also increase salaries of the employees by 10pc.

Ruling PTI’s Sadia Sohail Rana paid tributes to chief ministers of all the provinces for presenting the best budgets in view of the coronavirus pandemic. Claiming that Prime Minister Imran Khan took reigns of the country in a difficult situation, she said the opposition should have joined hands with the government in such a situation and work jointly for the country.

Yawar Abbas, another PTI member, lauded the Punjab Kidney and Liver Institute (PKLI) project initiated by the PML-N government but said the former ruling party should also admit its blunders as it overburdened the province with Rs2,500bn loan while the PML-Q government had handed it over the province with Rs100bn surplus.

The session was adjourned for Monday afternoon.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2020