KP Assembly passes Rs.900 billion budget for year 2019-20

PESHAWAR: The Provincial Assembly with Speaker Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani in the chair Wednesday passed Rs.900 billion budget for the year 2019-20 amid uproar by the opposition members protesting the bulldozing of the cut motions in their absence by the chair.The assembly approved 61 demands for grants in a unilateral proceeding of the house as the opposition members who went to the court for filling a writ petition against the government for ignoring opposition members in the development program 2019-20.By the time the opposition members returned to the house after filling petition in the high court, the chair had passed all the demands for grants pertaining to government departments, allowing the passage of the budget from the provincial legislature.The opposition members in a protest encircled dice of the chair and tore copies of the budget amid slogans of ‘budget namanzoor’ and the rumpus continued for an hour in the house.The normalcy returned to the house after the chair gave floor to Parliamentary Leader of ANP Sardar Hussain Babak to speak on budget.By the time leader of the house Chief Minister Mahmood Khan had also arrived in the house to attend the proceeding.The Chief Minister Mahmood Khan in his address in the house defended the budget 2019-20 saying that it is historic in nature as it also contains huge allocation for the merged areas.He said he was thankful to Chief of Army Staff and Pakistan Army for their cooperation and assistance in allocating budget for merged tribal districts.The CM assured that problems of the constituencies mentioned by the respective MPAs in their speeches during budget discussion would be addressed and maintained that necessary legislation would be enacted from the house to this effect.The CM said that reservations and apprehensions of the opposition members would be removed to their satisfaction.This is not the job of the elected parliament to defend the people involved in massive corruption in the country the CM said.He told the house the Swat Expressway, BRT Peshawar, Gomal Zam irrigation project would be completed during the current year.