KP Assembly passes Rs1,456bn budget

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Thursday passed 11-month budget of Rs1,456 billion for 2023-24 after approving all demands for grants. Speaker Bbar Saleem Swati chaired the assembly session.

Ministers tabled demands for grants of their respective departments while the opposition withdrew their cut motions at the request of treasury benches. Afterward, the budget was passed when the speaker approved all the 66 demands for grants.

At the outset of the session, treasury member, Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani, and opposition members, including Sobia Shahid of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz, Ejaz Muhammad and Rehana Ismail of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl presented their cut motions when law minister tabled demands for grants of Rs5.84166 billion that was being spent by the caretaker setup.

Sobia Shahid demanded action against the culprits of the May 9 vandalism and said that the monuments of martyrs were damaged and the building of Radio Pakistan was set ablaze on that day. She said that people might start protesting again if perpetrators were not punished. Mushtaq Ghani demanded a judicial inquiry into the May 9 incident to sift fiction from reality. He withdrew the cut motion later when the speaker placated him and said that the budget would be revised if cut motions were accepted. All the members withdrew the cut motions after the assurance of law minister to accept the demands of opposition members.