Members of the Punjab Assembly were least interested in the Punjab budget 2006-07 general discussions that kicked off on Saturday in the Punjab Assembly, since only eight legislators took part in it and the House had to prematurely adjourn.
On a number of occasions, Speaker Chaudhry Muhammad Afzal Sahi requested the legislators to forward their name to the Secretary Assembly for participation in the discussion, but they ignored his request. Amazingly, on the first day of the general discussion on budget, the House's proceedings continued despite lack of quorum, in fact around 50 legislators were present on the occasion, out of the 371 members.
On this pathetic situation, Deputy Opposition leader Rana Sanaullah Khan at a point of order said that this sorry state of affairs reflects the lack of interest of the legislators towards the discussion on budget and blamed the ruling party for not involving the House in the preparation of the budget, not even the members of the treasury benches. He informed the House that they had requested the treasury benches to hold a pre-budget session in the House, which was not entertained by the government. Under these circumstances, we cannot blame the legislators for adopting such an attitude.
Opposition Leader Qasim Zia strongly criticise the government for giving wrong budgetary allocation figures, especially in the head of local government. He claimed that it was a deficit budget and not a surplus one as presented by the government, which means that it has failed to collect revenue or meet revenue targets. He also annulled the government's claim of setting 70 percent of Rs 100 billion Annual Development Programme for development scheme. He said that this was not possible, since the government would not have that amount of money to spend. "It would only left with Rs 16.5 billion for ADP after subtracting Rs 25 billion shortfall in the revenue collection, Rs 12 billion allocation for local governments, Rs 23 billion allocation for Sailkot Motorway and Lahore Ring Road, Rs 4 billion block allocation and Rs 19.5 billion loans from the 70 percent of the total ADP.
He also question the amount set for the industrial sector and added that out of the total allocation of 984 million, Rs 581 million set for constructing buildings. With this amount what kind of infrastructure the government wants to introduce in the industrial sector, he questioned.
The opposition leader urged the government to withdraw the allocation fixed for the construction of Sialkot Airport and divert it to some other important development scheme, since Sialkot did not require any immediate need of airport.
"The budget document showed that the revenue receipts have exceeded the target of Rs 25.7 billion by Rs 4.3 billion. The government should inform the House that where the extra amount did came from. It seems that the government has imposed invisible taxes to generate the extra revenue," he claimed.
Later, at a point of order Ehsan Ullah Waqas pointed that the budget document has been prepared without a debate on the National Finance Commission Award in the august assembly. He was of the view that the Sindh government has shown its reservation on the NFC and declared that it would approach the federal government for an increase in its share in the award. Under these circumstances, where does the Punjab government stand, he asked.
In response, Punjab Finance Minister Sardar Hasnain Bahadur Dreshak informed the House that President Pervez Musharraf only announced an interim NFC Award and its copies would be presented in the House during the current budget session.
Punjab Law Minister Muhammad Basharat Raja said that under Article 254 of the Constitution the President exercised the power to announce the existing Award. "The committees of the four provinces constituted on NFC did not forward its recommendation to the federal government till now. As soon as it finalises the report, the Award would be announced," he added.
The house was adjourned till June 19 afternoon.