PA Undertakes Debate On Supplementary Budget 2019-20

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th Jun, 2020 ) :Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MPA Uzma Kardar on Monday said the opposition members did not know how to decipher budget documents, adding that the PTI government demanded supplementary budget for strengthening government institution.

Taking part in the debate on the supplementary budget 2019-20 during the PA session at a local hotel, Uzma Kardar said, while referring to the former PML-N regime, the opposition got the supplementary budget allocations for spending on foreign tours, renovations of personal homes and aggrandizement of their private employees.

Punjab Assembly on Monday started one hour 25 minutes behind its scheduled time of 2 p.m. Deputy Speaker Sardar Dost Muhammad Mazari chaired the session to discuss supplementary budget 2019-20.

"The budget allocations for the South Punjab were unjustly utilized in the Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) project by the Shehbaz Sharif government", the lawmaker said.

She said one could easily understand the misuse of public money by the Sharifs in Punjab from the fact that the PML-N government set-up six camp-offices for the chief minister while it sent gifts to PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari from the supplementary budget.

The opposition leaders were absconders and had fled to the foreign countries, adding they would have to account for the money-laundering and corruption.

"The opposition leaders talk of completing big projects and the masses know the Avenfield Apartments were bought form the looted public money", she claimed.

Taking part in the supplementary budget debate, Treasury MPA Abida Raja took the PML-N leadership to task and claimed that the Sharifs stole from the government lands in Murree and used it in the construction of their 'palaces', adding that the Sharifs stopped in Murree to indulge in profligate.

The MPA from Murree said the Sharifs patronized land-mafia in Murree, adding that PML-N government siphoned public funds worth three billion rupees and spent the money to build their royalty-like residences.

The performance of PML-N government was cipher in every sector, adding that they only prospered in plundering public money and resources. She said there was not a single department in the country which was not looted by the Sharifs.

The treasury bencher Sabeen Gul said opposition's criticism of the budget was meaningless, adding that PML-N looted funds from the South Punjab share and never spent on it. She said the opposition could not digest the development of the Southern Punjab.

"All those who nurtured ill-will against the South Punjab have been exposed today", Sabeen Gull said.

The House witnessed another day of strife between the treasury benches and the opposition and the members on both sides of the aisle started verbal exchanges when the PML-N members displayed placards and banners carrying anti-government slogans during the budget debate by the Law Minister Raja Basharat.

Provincial Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Raja Basharat asked the chair to set up a committee to look into the unlawful act of bringing placards and banners in the august House and recording the incident against parliamentary norms. Deputy Speaker Sardar Dost Muhammad Mazari, who was in chair, referred the case to a committee.

Earlier, PPP parliamentary leader Syed Hassan Murtaza started debate on the supplementary budget 2019-20 and criticized the government for raise in petroleum prices, adding that the government must provide relief to the masses.

The opposition MPAs including Mian Naseer, Uzma Bokhari, Hina Pervaiz Butt, Kanwal Pervaiz Liaqat also participated in the debate on the supplementary budget.

On completion of day's agenda to discuss supplementary budget 2019-20, the Panel of Chairman Mian Shafi Muhammad adjourned the session for June 30 (Tuesday) at 2 p.m.