The deteriorating political situation has hampered preparations for presenting the next fiscal year’s budget.
Punjab’s political instability created uncertainty among officials.
According to a senior government official, they are unsure whether they will produce a four-month or a one-year budget.
We have not yet received budget-making instructions, the official said on condition of anonymity.
Independent parliamentary observer groups such as the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat) and the Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen) expressed concern over violence in the Punjab Assembly during a session convened for the election of the Chief Minister.
They urged lawmakers to reopen the investigation and apprehend the perpetrators in order to resume the proceedings. The Punjab Assembly speaker filed a complaint with the court against the concerned police officers after they refused to register the case.
The events in the Punjab Assembly demonstrated the failure of multiple layers of regulatory protections and checks designed to ensure the secretariat’s compliance with rules and to deter such incidents by belligerent members, observers said.
