JAWAD R AWAN
LAHORE – The war of words between the opposition and treasury benches continued during the budget debate on Friday, while the atmosphere of the house suddenly turned pleasant when the opposition called the women treasury members ‘Benjamin Sisters’, noted singers during the 1980s.
Of the 48 members on the budget debate list, only 12 members from the opposition and treasury took part in the debate which showed the lack of interest on the part of the legislatures.
Punjab Assembly Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal, who was chairing the session, called the names of 30 other members who were on the debate list till the adjournment of the session for Monday (June 18).
In the fourth day of the budget debate, eight members of the opposition and four members of the treasury took part in the discussion. The opposition member, Riffat Sultana Dar, taking part in the debate proposed that yellow cart and bicycle schemes should be introduced on the lines of Yellow Cab scheme to benefit the labourers and workers. She also proposed for setting up a bench of Lahore High Court in Faisalabad, as it would help solving the problems of the people of this division.
Riffat claimed that the Punjab government had not taken any single step to deal with the energy crisis and asked the government to inform the house about the utilisation of the funds it fixed in the last fiscal year for the energy sector. Tahir Iqbal Chaudhary, another opposition member, said that the people of the province might think that the incumbent provincial government was sincere in solving their issues if the chief minister took up the energy projects instead of setting up a tent camp office.
Saghira Islam, from the opposition side, strongly criticised the sasti roti, green tractor and laptop schemes of the Punjab government and observed that these projects would be remembered as failed projects.
Yet another opposition member Amna Ulfat maintained that the provincial government had curtailed the development budget to 43 per cent, while the previous government spent 95 per cent of the development allocation. She remarked that a large number of students would get the benefit of the IT education if the funds allocated for the laptop scheme would be utilised for upgrading the IT labs set up by the previous government.
Mian Rafique, a treasury member, said building Kalabagh Dam was the only way out to meet the energy crisis and this was the need of the hour that all the political forces should unite to take up this vital project rising above their personal and party interests. Raheela Khadim Hussain demanded more increase in the salaries of the government employees. Haji Imran Zafar claimed that the provincial government was making recruitments in various departments on merit, while the previous government recruited the people on political considerations.