LAHORE: Former federal law minister and Senator Babar Awan, on Monday, announced that disorder and commotion would not be created during the presentation of the Punjab budget in the Punjab Assembly (PA) as was done by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in the National Assembly (NA) during the presentation of federal budget.He said that in contrast to the opposition in the NA, the PPP-led opposition would listen patiently to the provincial budget’s proceedings peacefully and might even cast votes for the budget’s approval if needed.He put forward these opinions while talking to media persons, on Monday, after chairing a parliamentary meeting of the PPP at the assembly cafeteria.“Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Shahbaz Sharif should not depend on support from the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) ‘turncoats’ for the provincial budget’s approval,” Babar said.He further said that the PPP had no objection as to who presented the budget, be it the CM himself or any other provincial minister. However, Babar added that as per the constitution, CM was to be considered the head of a department that had no other person in charge.Talking to the media persons, Babar said that it was the first provincial budget that was being prepared without the supervision of the finance minister and was to be announced under the same conditions. “For this, the Punjab government’s name should be entered into the Guinness book of world records,” he remarked.
Condemned by opposition leader in PA Raja Riaz, PPP parliamentary leader Zulfiqar Gondal, deputy parliamentary leader Shoukat Ali Basra, Zikriya Butt, and Babar Awan also said that the PML-N behaved extremely undemocratically during the Federal Budget 2011-12 session in the National Assembly and that the party had created a complete chaos within the assembly.Condemning the Punjab government’s behaviour, he said that PPP is trying not to make the same mistakes and that the PML-N should also make corrections in their conduct. He said that the PPP will refrain from causing any uproar during the Punjab Assembly’s budget session.Babar said that Nawaz Sharif made high claims regarding his respect for parliament, however, the attitude of the PML-N legislators during the NA session exposed the reality of his claims.
He said that the PML-N at the time was set to create disturbance and clashes. “The PML-N parliamentarians threw papers at the prime minister and the ‘PML-N bangle’s group’ attitude throughout the budget speech proved that they were still living in the local body-level politics of 80s and 90s.” Babar said that after that indecent show, there were continuous news in the media that PPP would retaliate, however, I openly announce today before the media that we would not initiate any unconstitutional or undemocratic step during the Punjab budget but would not accept any anti-masses steps or reforms. – Dailytimes
