Punjab budget will break back of the poor:PML-Q

Lahore: Pakistan Muslim League (PML) Punjab MPAs Sardar Vickas Hassan Moakal, Aamir Sultan Cheema and Khadeeja Umar Farooqi in their reaction to the Punjab budget 2014-15 have said that Punjab Govt had spoken lie continuously for 70 minutes on the sacred evening of Shab-e-Bara’at, the budget has not been prepared by a bureaucrat but some superintendent and the Finance Minister was only given copy of the speech for reading it.

The PML MPAs said that the govt which has given its 7th budget has got nothing to give to the poor, two useless metro bus projects budget was more than the budget for education and clean water, those ruling Punjab for six years have still kept the province under heavy debt of Rs 450 billion, falsehood of those who talked about breaking the begging bowl has been exposed by the budget documents, presently out of total debt of Punjab as much as 94 per cent was foreign debt.

They said those telling lie about construction of new colleges have not yet made functional 42 colleges whose buildings were completed during the tenure of Ch Parvez Elahi. They said that announcement to explore mineral resources at Kalabagh was in fact announcement to bury Kalabagh Dam.

They said that Annual Development Programme of Rs 345 billion was the biggest lie of the govt claims made during six years, the govt could utilize only Rs 110 billion of Rs 290 billion development budget of current financial year which was 38 per cent, people of South Punjab have once again been given lollypops of false promises, out of Rs 92 billion announced during last financial year only Rs 25 billion were released for South Punjab.

They said those who had got power under the cover of the movement for restoration of judiciary had not used word justice at all in the budget speech. They said the feasibility reports prepared in the past about cheap electricity generation projects had kept by Shahbaz Sharif in waste paper bucket, previously he was politicking in the name of load shedding and now in the name of power generation projects. They said that after successfully injecting the public exchequer in Lahore in the name of solid waste, it was expanding to the remaining district of Punjab now.

The PML MPAs further said that great injustice had been done with the poor people of the province by not mentioning Kalabagh Dam and local bodies’ elections in the budget speech. They said that those turning Lahore into paradise of Shahbaz should not forget the fate of paradise of Shaddad, those talking about setting up of new women universities should first account for I. T. University at 8 Club Road. They said that expansion of Rescue 1122 down to the tehsil level was also announced last year and has been repeated this year also.

They demanded that salaries of the govt employees should be increased at least by 25 per cent instead of 10 per cent. They said that an increase of Rs 100 billion has been shown in the provincial taxes which means secret taxes would be levied