• Ilahi said, the Inspector General will allow the budget to be presented only after the Chief Secretary apologizes
• Cabinet approves budget outlay of Rs 3.23 trillion
• 15 percent more pension proposal for government employees in the budget, 5 percent increase in pension
Lahore: The Punjab Assembly witnessed a day-long drama on Monday with Speaker Chaudhry Pervez Elahi refusing permission to hold the session and present the provincial budget, before the Inspector General of Police (IGP) apologizing to him and all the cases lodged against Pakistan. cases solicited. Take back the activists and MPs of Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and PML-Q.
After brief proceedings of the House followed by back-to-back meetings between the treasury and the opposition for more than six hours, the Speaker took a strong stand on the absence of the Chief Secretary and the IGP and said proceedings would continue only if both the officers were present in the assembly gallery. After adjourning the proceedings until 11 p.m., Mr. Elahi adjourned the session until 1 p.m. on Tuesday (today) – without permission for the presentation of the province’s budget for the fiscal year 2022-23.
The provincial cabinet had earlier approved the Hamza Shahbaz-led Punjab government’s first budget of over Rs 3.226 trillion for the next financial year, including the highest ever annual development program of Rs 685 billion – Rs 560 billion 22.3% more than the existing ADP of Rs. ,
The PA session, scheduled for 2 pm, did not start on time due to three six-hour long meetings between the Treasury and opposition members to arrive at a consensus on withdrawal of all cases instituted against PTI and PML-Q activists and MPs. could. Recently on 16th April long march and violence in the assembly.
The speaker and the opposition committee agreed after marathon meetings that the matter of apology from CS and IGP should be decided after investigation whether they were also guilty of misconduct.
Proceedings of the budget session began a few minutes before 8 p.m., but again faced unrest when the unelected Minister of the Treasury, Ataullah Tarar, entered the floor of the House, which was opposed by opposition member Chaudhry Zaheeruddin.
Speaker Elahi, who belongs to the opposition, immediately halted the session and called on the Sergeant-at-Arms to respectfully leave the House with Tarar. The PML-N spokesperson and minister, however, was adamant that he would remain, and even demanded from the PA Rules of Business that any clause be found that would allow him to sit in the House. Treasury members also prevented the Sergeant-at-Arms from reaching Mr. Tarar.
The session was adjourned for over an hour until Tarar finally left the building. Before going out, he addressed the speaker and said that he had accepted his decision in protest, and that he did not want to stop him from presenting the budget for the welfare of the 120 million people of Punjab. Just before leaving, Tarar picked up the assembly rule book and made an obscene gesture towards the chair.
The minister later tweeted: “My ego is not as big as Parvez Elahi. I went into protest despite being a minister and taking oath under the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
While the proceedings remained adjourned, the speaker changed his mind and issued a decision that he would not allow the budget to be presented until the CS and the IGP were called to the assembly.
Taking a jibe at the treasury, he said, “The treasury should call the chief minister to the house and the chief secretary and the IGP should also be asked to appear in the assembly gallery.”
Earlier, there was no indication that the budget session would begin on time as almost neither of the two members was present in the House on time. The bells kept ringing, inviting MPs to take their seats.
At the start of the session, the Treasury outrightly rejected the demands of both the Speaker and the Opposition to withdraw the cases and summon the IGP to apologize over the police’s alleged torture on PTI and PML-Q MPs in the Assembly. in April.
The Treasury, however, said the police chief would only apologize if he was found guilty of any misconduct, which the Pervez Elahi camp acknowledged. The Treasury and the opposition later set up an eight-member committee – four from each side – to monitor the progress of the withdrawal of cases.
PTI MPA Basharat Raja said that there was a detailed discussion between the candidates from both the sides and it was decided that after a formal announcement on the floor of the House, all fake cases registered against the opposition MPs would be withdrawn.
Talking to the media after the adjournment of the session, Raja said that this was the first incident of its kind when no government could present the budget on the first day of the session. “What else would be the failure of the government if it failed to present the budget on the day of the budget itself,” he said.
Stating that it was decided in the Business Advisory Committee that the CS and IGP would be present in the assembly gallery during the proceedings, he questioned why the officials did not come.
“If both the senior officers do not come to the assembly on Tuesday (today), the Speaker will give his verdict,” he said.
PTI MPA and former Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid protested in the House, saying the Treasury did not honor its promise to ensure the presence of officials during the proceedings.
Ahead of the session, Speaker Elahi had notified PTI MP Muhammad Sibtain Khan as the Leader of the Opposition. MPA Raja and Mian Aslam Iqbal were notified as deputy opposition leaders.
On the other hand, PML-N MLA Malik Ahmed Khan announced that the provincial government would not present the IGP and CS before the assembly. “We can find some other constitutional way to present the budget in the House, but will not accede to the demand of the Speaker and the opposition to present the senior officials in the PA,” he insisted.
budget proposal
Meanwhile, the budget approved earlier by the cabinet had proposed a 15 per cent hike in salaries of public sector employees, 5 per cent increase in pension of retired officers and Rs 109.1 billion for foreign-funded projects. The proposed budget envisages a wide range of subsidy and relief packages worth Rs 190.58 billion, and about Rs 1.712 trillion for service delivery across various sectors – 20 pc more than the current fiscal’s Rs 1.428 trillion.
According to the budget document, the government’s major initiatives during the next financial year are proposed to be Rs 100 billion for social security (utility assistance programme) and Rs 31.5 billion for South Punjab alone.
Other major projects include Rs 9 billion for road rehabilitation programme, Rs 5 billion for land acquisition for development projects, Rs 1.35 billion for minority development and Rs 1.5 billion for provision of laptops to students.
Punjab’s expectation of receiving Rs 2,020.7 billion from the federal divisible pool as its share under the National Finance Commission award is based on the assumption that the Federal Board of Revenue will achieve the tax collection target of Rs 7,004 billion during the next fiscal.
Rs 190.58 billion relief package includes ghee for small farmers, Ramzan package, agriculture, transport, subsidy on e-credit facility Rs 5 billion, Rs 2 billion, Rs 17.32 billion, Rs 17.89 billion, Rs 0.44 billion, Rs 39.93 billion rupees, 2 billion rupees and 6 billion rupees. Free medicines, drought and tree plantation and challenges of environment/climate change, respectively.
The proposed sectoral allocations would be Rs 1,083.69 billion for social and Rs 216.68 billion for infrastructure development, Rs 127.32 billion for production, Rs 663.15 for services and Rs 306.09 billion for special initiative sectors.
Published in Dawn, June 14, 2022