Punjab Assembly passes supplementary budget amid opposition outcry

PML-N asks PTI to justify increased expenditure on police force

LAHORE: For the first time since the budget was passed for the coming financial year, the opposition finally decided to let loose with its feelings about the overall outlay.

PML-N created a ruckus and started chanting slogans against the treasury when the house passed the supplementary budget.

Opposition lawmakers walked out of house proceedings a moment before Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Sardar Usman Buzdar, in a rare appearance on the floor of the assembly, kicked off his speech. Friday was the second consecutive day when PML-N lawmakers pressed the treasury benches to justify the spending of Rs270 million on the police department.

They asked about the manner of reforms that the government was planning to introduce to the force. Some opposition MPAs believed that the extra expenditure was not aimed at enabling the de-politicization of the police.

He asked for specifics and details about the steps initiated by the provincial government to make the police force a department free of political influence.

Punjab Minister for Law Raja Basharat grilled the opposition, saying its protest against the said amount is tantamount to forgetting the sacrifices of those officials who laid down their lives to ensure public safety.

Basharat silenced the opposition when he suggested that both the treasury and the opposition introduce and pass a collective resolution which sought justice for the victims of the Model Town massacre.



Responding to PML-N’s Malik Muhammad Ahmed’s query over the reforms being introduced to the police sector, Basharat said steps are being taken on three levels. He pointed out that the Supreme Court created its own reform commission, while the federal and provincial governments had done the same on their respective levels. He stressed that work was continuing on these bodies.

Chaos ensued in the house when Raja Basharat said PML-N’s regime created Mansha Bomb, Abid Boxer and the officials who were responsible for the Model Town Massacre.

PML-N lawmakers reacted strongly to Raja Basharat’s statement and started chanting slogans against the PTI government. They also tore copies of the agenda and threw the same on PTI lawmakers. Meanwhile, Hamza Shehbaz Sharif was silently observing the proceedings of the house. He finally stood up for few minutes and later walked out of the house along with his party’s members. This was moments before the CM started his speech.

Buzdar thanked the house and his allies who helped pass, what he called, a “pro-people” budget. Some lawmakers also seemed to be supplying him slips with some important points of the budget as he addressed the house.

The chief minister said that from villages to markets, the government will complete a 1,500-kilometre road this year. He added that for the Prime Minister’s Housing Scheme, the provincial government has also allocated money. “We did not ignore the jails in this budget. We, along with the help of the generous community, paid fines of prisoners amounting to Rs280 million. He said that as many as 1,000 inmates managed to gain benefit from this exercise.

After the CM’s speech ended, Speaker Chaudhary Pervez Elahi prorogued the session for an indefinite period.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 29^th, 2019.