Abandoned properties & homeless persons: Draft amendment bill concerning repeal of legislation presented in Punjab PA
LAHORE: A draft amendment bill concerning the repeal of legislation related to abandoned properties and homeless persons for 2026 was presented in the Punjab Assembly during Thursday’s session. Law Minister Rana Iqbal introduced the bill, which has been referred to a committee for a two-month period of consideration and discussion.
The Punjab Assembly session began Thursday with a delay of one hour and twenty-three minutes, with Deputy Speaker Malik Zaheer Iqbal Channar presiding over the proceedings.
Opposition members strongly protested the delay and registered their dissent by standing silently in the house. In response to the protest, Deputy Speaker Channar assured the assembly that whenever he presides over future sessions, they will commence on time. He emphasized that sessions will start punctually regardless of whether members are present or not.
Deputy Speaker Malik Zaheer Iqbal Channar also strongly condemned a tragic incident involving a mother and daughter that occurred near Data Darbar at Bhati Gate. He demanded that the government implement effective measures to prevent such incidents in the future. Pakistan Peoples Party member Nargis Faiz expressed her anger over the fact that this major tragic incident, in which a mother and daughter lost their lives, was not mentioned during the assembly proceedings. She questioned whether the members had become so oblivious to such tragedies.
Discussion on post-budget and pre-budget matters continued in the Punjab Assembly Thursday. Chairperson Samiullah Khan noted that while ministers usually attend sessions, they were unable to come today due to other engagements. He asked the house whether the discussion should proceed in their absence. The opposition refused to begin the debate without the Finance Minister present, while government benches advocated for initiating the discussion immediately.
Brigadier Mushtaq argued that the discussion would only be beneficial if the Finance Minister were present and suggested postponing the debate until another day. Government member Amjad Ali Javed supported this position, questioning how the discussion could begin without the Finance Minister delivering his speech. Ahmad Iqbal, another government member, also opposed starting the budget debate and recalled that it had previously been agreed that the discussion should not take place when very few members were present.
Ahmad Iqbal requested that proper procedure be followed and pointed out that while four days had been allocated for the budget debate, three days had already passed since the day before yesterday without any substantial discussion taking place. With only one day remaining, he expressed concern that the proceedings would merely become a ceremonial practice rather than a meaningful debate.
Despite these objections, the post-budget general debate was eventually initiated in the Punjab Assembly in the absence of the Finance Minister. Imtiaz Mahmood Sheikh addressed the house and referenced the incident in which a mother and her young daughter fell into a gutter. He stated that when the husband raised an alarm, the police arrested him for six hours in what he characterized as an attempt to prevent the exposure of poor governance.
Sheikh argued that government performance in the budget should be assessed by examining what targets the government has achieved. He stated that a government is considered successful if it achieves 50 percent of its targets in the second quarter. However, he claimed that the government has failed to meet its targets across the board. He noted that the non-development budget, which was initially set at two hundred and fifty billion, was increased to three hundred billion, and questioned by whose authority this increase was authorized.
Sheikh provided specific examples of underspending across various sectors. He stated that 80 billion rupees was allocated for agriculture but only 18 billion rupees was spent. For Higher Education, 39 billion rupees was allocated but only four hundred and twenty-two million rupees was spent. The Commerce and Industry sector received an allocation of 12 billion rupees but only two billion rupees was spent. Four billion rupees was allocated for Human Rights with zero expenditure, while Local Government received one hundred and forty-two million rupees but spent only thirty-seven million rupees. He criticized the government for focusing solely on cement roads while poverty and crime rates have increased over the past two years.
Government member Amjad Ali Javed raised questions about government performance during the post-budget discussion, pointing out that the expenditure estimates presented did not include information about where the money was actually spent. He questioned why the expenses were not explained on a project-by-project basis, which would have provided clarity for meaningful discussion.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026