Moving swiftly on: Opposition cut motions get short shrift

Only three out of five motions presented before the speaker invoked the guillotine.

LAHORE:

The opposition presented three cut motions out of the five they had raised, pertaining to 41 demands for grants in the supplementary provincial budget on Thursday. All the cut motions were rejected in the voting.

The Punjab Assembly passed the Rs21.67 billion supplementary budget for the outgoing financial year 2013-2014 and the house approved of all demands including 23 requests for token grants of Rs1,000.

The opposition submitted cut motions on loans to municipalities / autonomous bodies, irrigation works, jails, convict settlements, communications and public health but could only present three of them. These were loans to municipalities, irrigation works and jails. The cut motion on loans to municipalities entailed that the Rs4.28 billion demanded should be slashed to one rupee.



MPA Sibtain Khan of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf said there were no checks on funds transferred to tehsil municipal authorities. MPA Sardar Shahabuddin Khan Sehar of the Pakistan Peoples Party said in Layyah, a TMO had been removed from his position for not signing cheques for funds used for the Punjab Youth Festival. The house voted on the cut motion, rejecting it.

The cut motion on irrigation works requested slashing of the Rs1.03 billion grant to one rupee.

MPA Dr Syed Waseem Akhtar of the Jamaat-i-Islami said the Irrigation Department had failed to provide canal water to villagers on the tail-end. He said influential people, feudal lords and politicians, at the start of the canals stole water with impunity. The Irrigation Department sold water to poor farmers at the tail-end, he said.

He said in many cases, farmers opted for crops that did not need too much water. But they were charged for water just the same, he said. “This is extortion.” He said the law needed to be reviewed and farmers who grew crops that did not require water be spared from paying the water rate.

He said several studies showed that Pakistan could face acute water shortage by 2015. He said Kalabagh Dam was a feasible project which should be immediately considered. He said the dam had been politicised by India and the politicians opposed to the dam construction had placed Pakistan’s agrarian economy at risk. He said flood damaged thousands acres of standing crops and caused loss of billons of rupees every year.

Minister for Irrigation Yawar Zaman said the opposition had led a general discussion on irrigation and skirted the debate on the supplementary budget. He said he would respond to the issues raised in the general discussion at another time. The cut motion on jails and convict settlements challenged the demand for Rs190.6 million grant for the head.

The opposition members criticised the state of prisons in the Punjab. Minister for Jails Abdul Waheed said the government had constructed new jails that would open in the coming months.

At 1pm, the speaker invoked the guillotine for supplementary demands for grants and demands were put to vote without discussion.

Minister for Finance Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman thanked the house for their input and the government staff in preparing the budget. The speaker prorogued the session for an indefinite period.

Later, MPA Rana Sanaullah said Imran Khan had been blinded by his lust for power.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 27^th, 2014.