LAHORE:
The budget debate in the Punjab Assembly on Sunday was dominated by sharp criticism from the opposition and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), describing the document as a collection of misleading statistics and expressing reservations over development priorities and allocations for southern Punjab, agriculture, health and education.
On the other hand, Treasury members defended the government’s performance and accused the opposition of turning the House into a forum for political rhetoric instead of debating the budget.
While the debates began about an hour and a half late on the third day of the general discussion on the budget, only 30 deputies were present among the 371 members of the assembly, including 18 from the Treasury and 12 from the opposition.
Opening the debate, opposition MP Ejaz Shafi claimed the budget figures were a “numbers game” and claimed allocations for agriculture, school and higher education, health and special education had actually been cut despite government claims that spending had increased.
He questioned the use of last year’s development funds and criticized what he called the decline of investment in public welfare sectors.
Along with the budgetary criticism, he also raised the case of imprisoned PTI leaders and workers, insisting that they were being denied justice.
PPP MP Wasif Mazhar Ran echoed concerns over the budget, questioning how the government could claim to have presented a tax-free budget while forecasting a 65 per cent increase in revenue collection. He urged the government to prioritize health and education.
Opposition members have repeatedly alleged that southern Punjab has been ignored in the provincial budget. PTI MPA Nadeem Qureshi claimed that only Rs 96 billion had been allocated to southern Punjab out of a development budget of Rs 752 billion, although the region contributes about 40 percent of Pakistan’s agricultural production.
He alleged that allocations for higher education and agriculture had remained disproportionately low. He also criticized the government for objecting whenever opposition members raised political issues, noting that politicians could not be expected to avoid politics in the Assembly.
Another opposition member, Ali Imtiaz Warraich, argued that the Punjab budget could not be understood without looking at federal spending, saying the province had transferred Rs546 billion to the federation without taking the assembly sufficiently into confidence.
He criticized the government’s overall economic model, alleging that it had failed to improve public services, particularly in southern Punjab.
Opposition speeches often shifted from budget to policy. Several PTI lawmakers said the party remained the most popular political force in the province despite the imprisonment of its leaders.
PTI MP Farrukh Javed Moon challenged the government to hold transparent elections in Lahore, saying the ruling PML-N could not win a fair poll. He denounced widespread corruption in ministries, criticized the outsourcing of public schools, questioned the wheat purchasing policy and accused the government of making false promises during the election campaign.
MP Saima Kanwal said voters elected her party to demand the release of jailed PTI founder Imran Khan and demand the return of what she described as the party’s “stolen mandate”.
She criticized the government’s spending priorities, alleging that public funds were being used for luxuries rather than social assistance.
MPA Zarnab Sher also criticized the budget, alleging that development expenditure remained limited compared to the total expenditure, while accusing the government of reducing allocations for health and education but increasing expenditure on administrative offices and the Chief Minister’s Secretariat.
The debate also briefly turned to law and order after opposition leader Moin Riaz Qureshi raised the killing of an Australian-Pakistani child during a police operation in Chakwal.
He raised the question of why similar incidents involving Pakistani citizens had not received the same attention.
President Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan agreed that an impartial investigation was necessary and ordered the government to present before the assembly details of the Chakwal incident and another reported by Bhakkar.
