Gilani's son blasts budget but praises Shahbaz

LAHORE - Abdul Qadir Gilani, well-dressed son of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, grilled the Punjab government for presenting imbalanced budget for 2009-10 during his ‘balanced’ speech with appreciation for Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.
During the budget debate in the Punjab Assembly on Tuesday, Qadir Gilani who recently has been ‘accommodated’ in the Public Accounts Committee (II) as its Chairman, said the Punjab government had presented an imbalanced budget that was not fair.
He said the government earmarked Rs 47 billion for the industrial sector while the agriculture sector had been allocated only Rs 3 billion.
He was trying to impress the House by making speech in a loud voice when only handful legislators were present there. Interestingly, they were also least interested in listening to his suggestions.
‘A record amount of Rs 47 billion for the industrial sector but on the other hand only Rs 3 billion for agriculture! What a huge difference!” he was surprised. He also claimed that the Southern Punjab was producing 70 per cent of the agriculture produce and ‘only Rs 3 billion’, he again pointed out while reading his notes during the speech.
Qadir Gilani also criticised the government for not giving the portfolio of the education minister to anybody stating the government had allocated reasonable funds for the uplift of health and education sector. “But we don’t have any education minister yet. I am unable to understand how this department can perform efficiently when there is no minister to supervise this department,” he said. He also suggested that more ministers should be inducted in the cabinet for the departments like education.
He said the scheme of distribution of 12,500 five-marla plots among the destitute and homeless people in the province was a good initiative by the chief minister but in the same breath, he said, actually Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Shaheed had launched this scheme. He also pledged that he would especially pray for the provincial government so that it would be able to accomplish its promises made in the budget during the next fiscal year.
However, he said that he was hopeful that the country would overcome all the challenges. After listening to his speech, it was still unclear whether his party - PPP - was in Opposition in Punjab or a partner of the government with a number of ministries.
“A country which had the leader like Shaheed Benazir Bhutto who sacrificed her life for democracy and ‘Opposition’ that donated blood, could overcome all the challenges,” he said while referring his party members who donated blood on the eve of Benazir Bhutto’s birthday as the members of the ‘Opposition’.