Punjab Budget highlights

LAHORE: Following are the highlights of the provincial budget for fiscal year 2019-20.

Sardar Usman Buzdar-led Punjab government presented its annual budget in the Punjab Assembly here on Friday.

Speaker Punjab Assembly Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi presided over the first sitting of the 10th session.

The budget session started half an hour behind its scheduled time of 3.00pm.

Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar entered the House. Treasury members welcomed his arrival by beating desks and raising slogans.

A large number of provincial ministers, parliamentary secretaries, advisors and special assistants were present in the House.

Finance Minister Makhdum Hashim Jawan Bukht delivered speech at 3:35 pm.

He took 32 minutes to make 14 pages lengthy speech in the House.

The opposition members kept protesting during the speech and surrounded the dais of the PA speaker and raised slogans.

Law Minister Raja Basharat, along with some other treasury members, surrounded the finance minister during the later part of the speech in the wake of the opposition protest.

At the end of the speech, the treasury members felicitated finance minister for presenting the budget speech in a well-expressed style and commended his presentation as well.

Along with Annual Budget Statement, the finance minister introduced the Finance Bill 2019 and also presented Supplementary Budget Statement for 2018-19.

Opposition leader in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz was also present during the session. *Foolproof measures were taken for security of elected representatives and to avoid any eventuality.