LAHORE:
“The chief minister’s (CM) regard and vision for minorities can been judged from the Punjab government’s allocation of a measly Rs220 million for minorities. Even the Lahore Zoo has been allocated Rs390 million,” Pervez Rafique, PPP MPA on a reserved seat for minorities, said on Monday.
Rafique was speaking at the Punjab assembly (PA) budget debate. He said that Rs220 million reserved for various minorities came to Rs45 for each of the minority citizens.
He also criticised the budget allocations for Christian students.
“The government has allocated Rs5 million for scholarships to be awarded to Christian students, making it a mere Rs16.6 per head,” he said.
The government of Punjab earned Rs1.5 billion from taxes on alcohol legally consumed only by the non-Muslims, but when it came to spending, he said, such a meagre amount had been reserved for them. Rafique demanded that 40 Christian villages be provided basic health units as no funds had been sanctioned for these villages in the budget.
He said that out of the Rs200 million block allocation for minorities by the CM, no scheme had been planned or initiated. He demanded that the government hand over Christian educational institutions to Christian MPAs. He said minorities should also be given special quota in the jobs for which Punjab Public Service Commission did the recruitment.
Rafique also condemned appointment of Ahmad Raza Tahir as the capital city police officer, recalling that he was the regional police officer when the Gojra riots happened. Rafique demanded that security scanners be installed at all religious places belonging to minorities.
Rafique’s address was followed by MPA Khadija Omer Farooqi, who read PML-Q MPA Chaudhry Moonis Elahi’s speech. Elahi was not brought to the assembly session despite production orders issued by the PA speaker.
Farooqi said that the expenditure on Chief Minister’s Secretariat had crossed Rs320 million last year against an allocation of Rs260 million. She also criticised the CM for not sticking to his position of rejecting foreign aid. “Rs33 billion has been changed into party fund by the PML-N government in the name of block allocation,” she said.
PPP MPA and former labour minister Malik Ashraf Sohna said that Ashiyana Housing Society was ‘old wine in new bottle.’ He said that the scheme was another project where the government had wasted money.
“I had sent a summary for establishing a Social Security Medical College to the CM’s Secretariat, but the file is still lying there after more than a year,” he said.
PML-N MPA Malik Waris Kallu said that Punjab had the largest number of people living below the poverty line among Pakistani provinces.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 21st, 2011.
COMMENTS (4)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ