Peshawar: The Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa approved the Supplementary Budget for 2017-2018 on Friday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).
The Assembly met for three hours and 52 minutes while the proceedings remained suspended for 15 minutes. The sitting started at 1042 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours. As many as 35 members (28%) were present at the start and 49 (39%) at the end of the sitting. The Deputy Speaker chaired the entire sitting as the Speaker was not present. The Chief Minister did not attend the sitting. The Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting. The parliamentary leader ANP attended the sitting. As many as two out of three minority members were present.
The House approved 51 Supplementary Demands for Grants (DfG) seeking a sum of PKR 23,176,592,750 for various government departments. As many as 10 lawmakers participated in the discussion on DfGs consuming an hour and 25 minutes.
The House took up only 26 of 354 Cut Motions (CM), submitted against DfGs for the departments of General Administration, Finance, Treasuries and Local Fund Audit, and Planning, Development, and Bureau of Statistics. As many as nine out of 26 CMs were withdrawn by the movers while 17 lapsed to absence of the concerned lawmakers.
Moved by a PPPP lawmaker, the House passed a resolution suggesting the government to restore quota in private medical colleges for the children of the staff of these colleges.
The Chair suspended the proceedings for 15 minutes on a Point of Order raised by ANP lawmaker who had objected on approval of supplementary budget after the month of June. Following the suspension, the Speaker ruled out the objection.