Lahore, June 29; Citizen�s forum held in Lahore today demanded that a more effective role be granted to the Standing Committees of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab in the provincial budget process. The citizens� forum met with Rana Mohammad Iqbal Khan, MPA, Speaker, Punjab Assembly in the chair to discuss the performance of the Punjab Assembly in the Budget Session 2012-2013.

In his opening remarks, while giving an introduction of the Citizens� forum Mr. Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, Executive Director, PILDAT highlighted the performance of the Punjab Assembly in its budget session 2012-2013. He said that the budget session for the fiscal year 2012-2013 in Punjab Assembly lasted for a total of 11 working days with budget discussion taking place for only 6 days. He further said that more serious debate is needed to pass the most important document of the house. He said that it is only possible if the demands for grants are referred to the relevant departmental committees for discussion.

Mr. Irfan Qaiser Shaikh, President Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry, was of the opinion that there should be transparency and public should be taken in confidence for taxation reforms keeping the stakeholders in mind. He stated that the fundamental issue is of the growing demand of the market to be dealt with. The deteriorating GDP should be maintained and the lack of progress in tax reforms should be prudent and smart in order to provide incentives to the contributions of the tax-payers. He recommended that the Provincial Assembly and government should bring public-private partnership to a forum that targets towards industrial development and investment through improvement of skills and technologies. Furthermore, he added that catering to the issues that deal with poverty reduction and energy crisis should be the priority to take Pakistan towards economic prosperity.

Mr. Tanvir Ashraf Kaira, MPA and former Provincial Minister for Finance, praised the Punjab Assembly for holding pre-budget debate in the House and demanded that the Standing Committees of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab should be give more powers in the budget making process. He also demanded Suo Moto powers for the Provincial Standing committees. He also expressed the need to increase the time for debating the budget. He suggested that the budget should be presented in February and then debated in the House till June when it can be finally passed by the Assembly. He quoted the example of Lok Sabha, India, where the budget is debated on the average for 75 days before it is finally approved.

Mr. Iftikhar Ahmed, senior journalist, while expressing his views raised important points about expenditure and allocation, demanding for fuller discussions on the amount to be spent and how certain projects are chosen in lieu of others. Mr. Iftikhar Ahmed further said that the budget process can only be made effective if it includes the views of the masses. He was of the opinion that the standing committees of the House should be strengthened and their role in the budget process should be enhanced. The standing committees should invite input from the public through newspaper ads and the suggestions put forward by the public should be the guidelines for making budget allocations. He further said that no budget will work for the betterment of the people until the people are not made a part of the budgetary process. He was also of the opinion that the local government system should also be revived and legislation to this effect should be carried out in the house.

The forum was followed by an intense question hour session.

The Forum was attended by a large number of Civil Society representatives, youth, media and business community representatives. Members of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab along with the Punjab Assembly Secretariat staff also attended the forum and termed it extremely useful.

A Citizens Report on Punjab Assembly Budget Session 2012-2013 was prepared by PILDAT and shared at the Forum. The report highlighted that Provincial Assembly of the Punjab, like its previous budget sessions, went through the �motions� of passing the budget this year also. The Assembly passed the Provincial Budget of Rs. 780 billion in only 6 working days in which 90 members of the Punjab Assembly spoke for approximately 21 hours and 56 Minutes with the average of around fourteen and a half minutes of talk time per speaker.

The time consumed by the 15th Provincial Assembly of the Punjab in its 5th and final Budget Session was 56% less than the time it consumed last year, in Budget Session 2011-2012 The number of days consumed for debating the Budget 2012-13 are 7% less as compared to the number of days used to debate the budget 2011-2012.

Chief Minister of the Punjab attended only 4 (36 %) sittings of the Punjab budget session.

The Citizens Forum has been held and Citizens Report has been prepared by PILDAT under the Parliamentary and Political Party Strengthening Project II which is funded through Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT). The project is implemented jointly by the Parliamentary Centre, Canada and PILDAT.