Punjab Finance Minister Dr Ayesha Ghous Pasha on Monday presented amid protest by opposition Rs 1898 billion supplementary budget for the year 2017-18 in addition to Rs 85 billion revised budget for the current financial year. The budget session was presided over by Punjab Assembly Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan.
The Minister said they are presenting a supplementary budget because according to the Article 125 and 126 of the constitution the government cannot present the budget for the year 2018-19 at the end of its tenure. So the provincial government has decided to leave the matter regarding presentation of budget 2018-19 to the next elected provincial government, she added.
She said this year the development budget is of Rs 635 billion. The government's priority is the Orange Line Project and power houses and it has allocated record amounts for these purposes. She claimed that they had completed all the power projects.
Unfolding the supplementary budget, Dr Ayesha said the government has spent more than Rs 19 billion in education sector and over Rs 17 billion in health sector. The government has spent more than Rs 5 billion on police, Rs 19 billion on construction of roads and bridges, Rs 760 million on agriculture sector, Rs 76.5 million on development of fisheries sector, Rs 2.84 billion on of irrigation sector, Rs 750 million on industry, Rs 189 million on buying sugar and other agriculture products, Rs 822 million on administration of justice and it demanded an approval of more than Rs 126 million collected in the form of provincial excise, she said.
Earlier, opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly Mian Mahmood-ur-Rashid while speaking on a point of order demanded that a case should be registered against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif under Article 6 of the constitution for his remarks on the Mumbai attacks. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf also submitted two resolutions against Nawaz which were submitted by Mehmood-ur-Rasheed and Dr Murad Raas.
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