Opposition remains calm during KP budget presentation

PESHAWAR: Opposition in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly did not create any trouble as Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra unveiled the budget for the fiscal year 2021-22 in the presence of Chief Minister Mahmood Khan.

Except for the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) members who had raised the placards inscribed with slogans of ‘the anti-people budget is not acceptable’ etc, no opposition member tried to disturb the budget speech.

However, opposition leader Akram Khan Durrani and the Awami National Party (ANP) parliamentary leader Sardar Hussain Babak did not attend the session.

Talking to the media, Samar Bilour of the ANP said her party had decided to boycott the budget session in protest against the treatment meted out to the opposition in the National Assembly.

The decision was taken in consultation with the party provincial president Aimal Wali Khan but the boycott was postponed at the request of Speaker Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani and ministers.

She said the speaker assured that no unparliamentarly language and action would be allowed in the House and the proceeding would be conducted smoothly. “Since the ANP believes in healthy traditions and parliament supremacy, that is why our members attended the budget session at the ministers’ request and speaker’s assurance,” she elaborated.

Later talking to the media, the PML-N provincial spokesperson and MPA Ikhtiar Wali Khan termed the budget as an IMF document and jugglery of words. He said the budget had nothing for the poor and there was no tangible increase in allocations for the education and other important sectors. “My party rejects the budget as it is based on lies”, he added.