PILDAT held a two-day workshop for the MPAs of Punjab under the title of Provincial Budget Process on Monday, May 10 � Tuesday, May 11, 2004 at Pearl Continental Hotel, Lahore as part of �Strengthening National and Provincial Legislative Governance in Pakistan� to prepare members of the Provincial Assembly to effectively review and analyze the budget before its approval.

The workshop was attended by twenty three MPAs, of six parties including, PPPP, PML(Q), PML(N), PML(J), MMA and NA.

Mr. Mujeeb ur Rehman Shami, Chief Editor of Daily Pakistan, presided over first session in which Mr. Sardar Hasnain Bahadur Dreshak, Provincial Minister of Finance for Punjab spoke about Conditions and Factors Influencing the Budget. Mr. Sartaj Aziz, Former Finance Minister, presided over the second session in which Mr. Salman Siddique, Provincial Secretary Finance presented an overview of the Provincial Budget Process while Mr. Nisar Ahmed Khuhru MPA-PPPP (Sindh), Leader of the Opposition spoke on Fiscal Autonomy and Federalism and Dr. Qazi Masood Ahmed, Associate Professor of Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi spoke on the variations in the Budget Allocation over the years. Shahzada Muhammad Gustasip Khan, MPA-Independent (NWFP) Leader of the opposition presided over the first session of the second day in which Mr. Abul Hassan Najmee, Former Secretary Provincial Assembly of Punjab, discussed the responsibilities of the MPAs relating to the Provincial Budget Process. The last session of the second day of the workshop was presided by Mr. Muhammad Haneef Ramay, Former Chief Minister of Punjab. In this session Dr. Salman Shah, Private Member of National Finance Commission (NFC) and Dr. Naudir Bakht, Chairman, Department of Political Science from Balochistan University, Quetta spoke on Fiscal Autonomy and Federalism. The final session also included a panel discussion which comprised Mr. Syed Ihsan Ullah Waqas, MPA- (MMA) and Ms. Humaira Awais Shahid, MPA-(NA).

All sessions were followed by an active Q&A session that provided a forum for debate and exchange of relevant ideas between speakers and the participating audience. The session proceedings were conducted both in Urdu and English language.