The budget session of the Punjab Assembly will commence from today (Thursday). A notification has been issued in this regard by the Punjab Assembly Secretariat.
“The provincial budget for the fiscal year of 2019-20 will be presented on Friday afternoon by Finance Minister Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakht,” the notification stated.
According to the notification, the Punjab governor has summoned the 10th session of the Punjab Assembly to meet on Thursday at 3pm in the assembly chambers and the Annual Budget Statement for the fiscal year 2019-20 will be presented on Friday.
While giving the pre-session media briefing to journalists in Punjab Assembly, Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Raja Basharat said that the federal government had presented a good budget and the Punjab government would also present a pro-people budget despite the poor state of the economy. He was of the view that the legislation was the primary objective of the assembly. “So far, we have passed 17 bills in just 8 months of our government in the Punjab Assembly. It is the highest figure in all the legislative assemblies of the country. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was given this province with a surplus of Rs 100 billion in 2008. However, they left it in 2018 with a debt of Rs 2,600 billion. Therefore, the masses are facing economic problems these days,” he said.
Talking about the reference of superior court judges, the provincial law minister said that the chief justice of Pakistan had already made it clear that the fate of the reference would be decided by the judiciary itself and not by the government. “The patriotic lawyers have decided that they will not become part of any movement and will not let a constitutional matter to become a political issue,” he added.
“More than 25 bar councils have passed the resolutions that they will not become part of any movement over the issue of reference against the judges. I am also in contact with the members of Pakistan Bar Council, Punjab Bar Council and Lahore High Court Bar Association,” he said.
Moreover, the opposition in Punjab Assembly has also devised a strategy to record their protest during the budget session over the inflation and arrest of Hamza Shehbaz and Asif Ali Zardari.
The parliamentary party meeting of PML-N was held on Wednesday in which all the MPAs of Punjab participated. A delegation of PPP comprising parliamentary leader Syed Hassan Murtaza and MPA Shazia Abid also met with the MPAs of PML-N to formulate a joint strategy.
Talking to Daily Times, PML-N MPA Samiullah Khan said that both the parties had demanded production orders for Hamza Shehbaz and Asif Zardari for the session of the Punjab Assembly and the National Assembly, respectively.
“We have submitted two applications in the speaker’s chamber, demanding production orders for Hamza Shehbaz who is also the opposition leader in Punjab Assembly. One application was signed by the opposition leader himself, while the second one was signed by four MPAs, including former speaker Rana Iqbal Khan,” he said.
Attaullah Tarar, the PML-N deputy general secretary, said that PML-N leaders had met the staff of Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi regarding the production orders of the opposition leader. “However, we still await the orders despite the fact that the session will commence today (Thursday),” he said.
